By HOLLY GASKILL
After a four-hour meeting Thursday night, members of the Wells County Council adjourned with the topic of salary raises left up in the air.
There were multiple factors discussed — department workload, the number of employees, past budget cuts and raises, salary in comparable counties, inflation — with an overarching attempt to balance fairness to the individual departments and departments across the board.
Several council members proposed the best option was a universal or similar percent raise. They also discussed if all deputies should be brought to the same or similar salary level, regardless of department.
Council member Todd Mahensmith said the council should attempt to get back to a similar scale between the deputies, even if that would require more work now. Council President Steve Huggins echoed a similar sentiment.
“I think it’s probably good if we get it back on par, and everybody can have their say in that,” Huggins said.
However, council members Scott Elzey and Jim Oswalt said a universal raise would neglect the specific work of every department. Huggins countered by asking if the council should be making the call on the status of each department.
The council had not begun to discuss how raises would be distributed to department heads and will still need to weigh these issues with their final line.
“What we tried to do is make things better, but now we have a conflict,” said council member Vicki Andrews.
While the overall issue was unresolved, the council did agree to amend the county’s ordinance regarding part-time hourly rates, bringing the maximum up to $15 per hour.
This decision met the requests of several departments, who sought to offer a more competitive pay. Currently, the maximum county is $12.60 per hour.
The new rate will go into effect after its formal introduction at the next council meeting. From there, each department head will have the discretion to determine part-time rates with their allotted budgets.
The council will reconvene to discuss the 2023 budget at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, Aug. 16.
holly@news-banner.com
