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The county's roughly 900 employees will be getting an average 7 percent pay raise in early July. That's good news for people like Sgt. David Farley.
What Farley and some others are having a hard time figuring out is what they say amounts to the county delaying other potential raises that will cost them perhaps thousands of dollars. On top of the July raises, which are based on a market study, the county has also increased the maximum amount that some employees can make. Those increases are tied to evaluation dates (and outcomes) over the course of the year but are also available beginning in July.
But by tying them to evaluation dates, Farley contends that he and others who have been "maxed out" for years but have evaluations in the first part of the year will miss out on potentially thousands of dollars.
It works like this:
If "maxed out" Employee A was hired after July 1 and receives good marks on the evaluation, the employee is eligible for an increase from the previous maximum. "Maxed out" Employee B, who was hired before July and already received a favorable evaluation, will have to wait until the next year's evaluation date rolls around for the raise while Employee A is already earning the extra money.
Compounding the problems is that the cycle will repeat for the next three years until the new maximum is fully in place. Using this scenario, Employee A could make thousands of dollars more than Employee B until they are all making the same amount in three years.
Personnel director Lana Jensen, who created the plan, says there's no easy way to raise the maximum. She went with the evaluation process because it's already in place and making raises retroactive is tricky.
"Believe me, that creates a whole different set of problems," she said. "Anything you do you're going to have somebody thinking 'It's not fair to me.' "
Farley and others like Deputy Doug Atwood -- whose evaluation dates are before July 1 -- sent multiple e-mails to the personnel department airing their concerns. What they got back wasn't helpful, they say.
"They just basically, very sarcastically told us 'That's the way it is, be glad,'" Atwood said.
Atwood, an 11-year employee, has been maxed out in his corrections position for four years. His concern is that employees with seniority will be making less than others simply because of when they're evaluated.
"Just to take it away from us is crazy," he said. "If there's money available to us, we should get it." |
