Controversy about salary equity in Jefferson County continued during Thursday’s commission meeting.  Commissioners were presented with three salary plans from three different departments.  The Circuit Clerk, the Sheriff and the prosecuting attorney.  Circuit Clerk Patsy Noland had hoped she would be able to give her employees a raise, but in response to the amount of information received, commissioners voted to table the item for two weeks.Commissioner Dale Manuel said he was ready to vote on the issue, but said that it can’t hurt to review the numbers again before making a decision.  Manuel said the county already started down the path when the hired a consultant to do a salary study and he would like to see the findings implemented.Commissioner Jim Surkamp says the amount of money in the bank will determine everything.  Surkamp put an item on the agenda for a workshop he said would give commissioners a chance to identify exactly how much money the county has at its disposal for this and other projects.  One complaint about salary has been that raises were not fairly issued and Surkamp feels more investigation is necessary to avoid a repeat of that scenario.  The cost of bringing all employees of the county and elected officials up to the pay the wage study shows they should make would cost nearly half a million dollars.  Any changes make would be retroactive for the fiscal year, which started on July 1.

Categories: Local News
Tags: Commission, Jefferson County, Manuel, Salary, Surklamp, Wage