Jasper County creates wage committee to analyze employee pay plans

Jasper County has created a committee to analyze and propose adjustments to the pay plans for county employees, which was initially started by the board of supervisors. While it seemed like progress was being made in the rework, the supervisors hit a snag and have now turned responsibility over to this group.

The wage committee is comprised of Supervisor Thad Nearmyer, County Auditor Jenna Jennings, Deputy County Auditor Melissa Hartgers, Payroll Clerk Lori Nore and Human Resources Director Dennis Simon. As an advisory committee, the group will not be approving, anything, but it will instead make recommendations.

Jasper County Attorney Scott Nicholson asked if the group was going to make recommendations to supervisors in a public meeting. The board said yes.

Supervisor Brandon Talsma suggested the wage committee was created as a way to continue the discussions already started by the board during past work sessions. For the past few months, the board has held work sessions after the meetings to rework the wage scales and pay plans of county employees.

“It took us 12 weeks to get to something that was halfway usable, and then in a 30-minute conversation it all went out the window,” Talsma said before making the recommendation to create the wage committee. The board of supervisors would go on to establish the wage committee in a 3-0 vote.

Talsma explained the snag came from a discussion with the county’s legal counsel Ahlers & Cooney, P.C.

The county was advised that the path it was currently going down could be challenged as illegal.

“Because what we would be doing is implementing a plan where somebody new coming in would never be able — it could be argued — to never be able to work or make as much as somebody else doing the same job who has been here for 30 years,” Talsma said. “…So that’s what happened with the original path.”

Never heard of a wage committee before? Talsma said the county has never had one before, and it doesn’t seem like many other counties have either. In light of the recent changes being made to the union contracts, coupled with the county wanting competitive wages, Talsma said this group was needed.

“We’re trying to go away from what we currently do — which is the steps — and go to a, I don’t know what you want to call it, a merit-based system I guess,” Talsma said. “So more of the responsibility is on the management, the department heads, for establishing what everyone’s raises are going to be.”

The supervisors would allow up to 3 percent raises for employees, but it will be up to department heads to divvy out those raises accordingly and how much their percentage will be. Talsma said now is a good time to take a hard look at county wages, noting some positions are lower than they need to be.

“We’re probably high on others,” he said. “In order to move forward with this system, No. 1 we have to establish the base wage for all these hourly and salaried positions … If the full board were to do this, it would take us probably a year to get done. That’s the whole idea behind the committee.”

So why are supervisors wanting to rework the pay plan? Talsma wants to make it simpler. Under the current step plan there are a lot of ranges the county doesn’t use. He also disagrees with the idea of an employee having to work in the county for eight to nine years before maxing out step increases.

“I don’t really think that’s right that an employee should be here for nine years getting 30- to 60-cent raises hourly every single year,” Talsma said. “Let’s try to get them bumped up in pay quicker and not string them along for 10 years.”

Talsma explained the committee is not like the veterans affairs commission or the planning and zoning commission in that it will meet publicly. He said the group will be meeting privately amongst themselves and department heads and then start building a list of adjusted starting salaries.

“They will bring those recommendations back to the full board of supervisors when they are done,” Talsma said. “And the full board of supervisors will discuss and act whether to adopt or reject those … We are not taking anything from employees as we’re looking at redoing this.

“We’re trying to ensure a way that we’re taking care of our employees, and we’re hoping this will help attract more people as well. It’s not going to take nine years of these mediocre steps to get to the top end of your payscale anymore. Then, lastly, we want to make sure everything we’re doing is sustainable.”