GREENFIELD — After months of debate, the Hancock County Council is finally ready to vote on how much of a raise its employees will receive.
The council members will vote on a proposal for employee raises to take effect in 2022 at its next meeting, set to take place on July 21.
Up for consideration are raises of 18% for merit deputies with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and 7% for all other employees, with the exception of elected officials and department heads. The county council has also considered a $4,200 raise for department heads and a $1,500 raise for council members and commissioners.
Commissioners suggested at the most recent meeting of the county’s budget committee that the county elected officials should receive a more significant raise.
“I’d like to see the commissioners get the $4,200, and I’d like to see the council get $3,100,” commissioner John Jessup said. Commissioner now earn $29,540 a year; council members are paid $6,981.
Council member Keely Butrum said the amount of that proposed raise initially seemed high to her, but after studying the salaries offered for elected officials in comparably sized counties, she believes it is reasonable.
The commissioners also recommended that employees at the county 911 center receive a higher raise than others in the county. Director John Jokantas has asked that he be allowed to raise his department’s salary expenses by a total of 8.3% in order to introduce a pay scale based on longevity. Depending on tenure, employees would receive raises of 5% to 10%.
“It seems to me that we’re kind of down the road. I don’t know why that didn’t come up before,” county council member Bill Bolander said. “The committee that worked on that came to a different decision.”
Members of the committee that considered employee pay raises noted that Jokantas initially recommended a raise of 10% for his employees, which was included in the considerations that led to the final 7% decision. Each department head was asked to give a percentage that they believed would allow their department to {span}improve employee retention.{/span}
Other officials pointed out that while the 911 dispatchers were not included in the category of “public safety officers” that the county agreed to give a higher raise — which they limited to merit deputies only — dispatchers do play a role in public safety.
“Many times they are first-responders, saving lives,” council member Jeannine Gray said. She added that the county wound up needing to give deputies a major raise because it had not kept up with other agencies’ rates of pay. It could avoid doing the same with dispatchers now, she suggested. “…While we have the opportunity to bring them up to a more current rate of pay, we might want to seriously consider that,” she said.
The council will consider whether to include that raise in the upcoming vote. It will also consider a potential recommendation to the commissioners that some of the county’s American Rescue Plan funds be used to offer employees a one-time bonus during 2021.