News

As Fayette County residents face a 1.5-mill increase in their property taxes to relieve a multimillion-dollar fund balance deficit, some nonunion employees will get a 3 percent raise this year.

Fayette County Salary Board members -- commissioners Angela Zimmerlink, Vincent Vicites and Joe Hardy, and county Controller Mark Roberts -- voted on the raise during a meeting Wednesday.

Vicites, Hardy and Roberts voted to award the 3 percent increase to the commissioners, nonunion department heads, supervisors and nonsupervisors. Zimmerlink voted against the measure, saying she would not accept the raise and urging others to do the same.

County row officers were not included in the package because they are covered under a 2002 resolution that gives them 3 percent annual raises through 2007.

"It's not that I don't appreciate the work these people do, and I'm not against people getting raises. My concern is the general fund budget and maintaining control of it," Zimmerlink said after the meeting.

Zimmerlink's opposition came despite the fact that the money for the raises will not come from the county's general fund. The revenue will instead come from the Courts Conciliation Fund after President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi offered a portion of the $162,000 fund to cover the cost of the raises during a late-night budget meeting in December. About $70,000 will be needed.

Zimmerlink said she would have preferred the money be used to offset other expenses.

"I do appreciate the judge's efforts, but I would like to see the money be used in a different way," Zimmerlink said.

While Capuzzi has told county officials that he believes that the Courts Conciliation Fund money also will be available for the next two years, Zimmerlink is concerned it may not be, and the funds for the raises will then have to come from the general fund.

"By this vote today, we've locked ourselves into making sure we have this money available," she said.

In other business yesterday, the board set the rate for all new county hires in part-time, nonunion positions at minimum wage, or $5.25 an hour.

The board reclassified the position of Chief Public Defender Jeff Whiteko from part-time to full-time and set his salary at $59,000. The board also created two additional part-time positions of assistant public defender at a pay rate of $9.80 per hour.

A motion to reclassify the position of Michelle Shumar, Human Services and Community Development director, to executive director with a wage increase from $18.64 to $21.82 per hour failed for lack of a second.

Elsie Dvorchak, administrative assistant in the coroner's office, which is a union position, will be reclassified as office manager, a nonunion post. Her hourly rate will increase from $8.76 to $11.30.

County Treasurer Robert Danko was given an additional full-time clerk in his office. The new post will be funded through increased revenues from doe licenses.

The board tentatively has set the next meeting for 11 a.m. Jan. 26.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News