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Blair budget, salaries criticized

Deputy sheriff tells commissioners that county employees do not believe pay is ‘fair and equitable’

Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec / Blair County Commissioner Bruce Erb (left) and Sheriff James Ott leave the Blair County Courthouse late Thursday afternoon. Deputy Sheriff David Kessling asked commissioners to review the 2019 draft budget and garner public input.

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County’s 2019 draft budget does not have a tax increase, but that’s not keeping the spending plan from generating questions, debate and criticism.

“There’s a perception of two standards here,” Deputy Sheriff David Kessling told commissioners during the last of three evening meetings to review the 2019 draft budget and garner public input.

There’s the commissioners and elected officials, Kessling said, and then there’s the county employees.

To illustrate the division, Kessling referenced a meeting in October where commissioners discussed salaries of future county office holders and settled on 2 percent annual raises.

The raises will keep their salaries in the “middle range” of compensation paid to their counterparts in other fifth-class counties, Commissioners Chair­man Bruce Erb said at the time.

But a lot of county employees are in the “bottom range” when compared with their counterparts in other fifth-class counties, Kessling said, and that’s not going to change in 2019 with annual raises of 2 percent to

3 percent.

“Fair and equitable?” the deputy asked. “It doesn’t seem that way to them.”

It also doesn’t seem fair to District Attorney Richard Consiglio, who is again asking commissioners for higher-than-typical pay raises in his department to counter turnover and a loss of experienced prosecutors.

In response, Erb and fellow Commissioner Ted Beam Jr. have asked Consiglio and other department heads to wait for results of a wage and job classification study due in mid-2019.

But Consiglio said his office already has done the research.

“They’re using that so-called study for a crutch so they can put off the raises as long as possible,” Consiglio said.

Kessling asked commissioners why their jobs and the jobs of other elected officials weren’t included in the study, naming that as another example of the division.

A different process governs the setting of their salaries, Erb said, and it applies to future officeholders, not current ones.

Erb and Beam have defended their stance based on what they expect will be a comprehensive and impartial report from Felice Associates of Greens­burg, a company that has done this work for many other government entities.

“I want an objective study, and we’re moving along in that direction,” Beam said.

But it doesn’t take the salary study to recognize that the county’s $35,000 starting pay for prosecutors and public defenders is too low, Commissioner Terry Tomassetti countered during a recent budget workshop meeting. He has been recommending $40,000 as a minimum starting salary for all attorneys on the county payroll, including judicial law clerks starting at $30,000.

Higher wages sought

At Tuesday’s weekly commissioners meeting, Consiglio, Chief Public Defender Russ Montgomery and President Judge Elizabeth Doyle made another pitch for higher attorney salaries, two weeks before the Nov. 13 budget introduction date.

Erb said he’s not likely to change his mind.

“People are looking for short-term answers,” Erb said. “But coming from the private sector, I remain interested in long-term solutions with progressive job classifications that reflect a level of experience, capabilities and educational or some other type of accomplishments that would lead to higher pay.”

Erb said he was exposed to that kind of organizational set-up during his career in banking. He retired three years ago when he joined the commissioners board.

Consiglio said he remains worried about finding staff for his office. He is currently looking for an assistant district attorney who can prosecute drug-trafficking cases, a position that pays $50,000 annually because of money allocated by Operation Our Town.

“That job needs an experienced prosecutor and it’s not going to be easy to find one,” Consiglio said. “The experienced prosecutors in my office have been leaving to work in other counties paying more than $50,000.”

Kessling also told commissioners that the sheriff’s department had a lot of turnover this year, and as a result, many deputies will be going through required training, which will cost the county about $10,000 each. Kessling predicted that by the end of 2019, half of the newly trained deputies will be gone because they will resign to take better-paying jobs.

Why hire more corrections officers?

Kessling also quizzed the commissioners about their support for hiring 13 corrections officers at the prison at a cost of $454,000. He reminded them about creating 12 full-time corrections officer positions at the prison in 2016, a move deemed made to reduce the dependence on part-time personnel who had been working full-time hours.

Erb told Kessling that the state Department of Corrections, which studied the county prison this year, recommended hiring even more corrections officers. Based on Mirror sources, 13 corrections officers are about half the amount in the department’s report, which it declines to release to the public.

Kessling also asked about the reasons behind hiring a third deputy warden at the prison, with a projected salary of $45,000.

That’s not a common position in other county prisons, Kessling said, acknowledging that he has worked as a county warden, a county deputy warden and as a deputy superintendent at the state prison in Houtzdale.

“Our task was not to spend money,” Kessling told commissioners. “You’re spending money.”

Commissioners said the third deputy warden is expected to focus on personnel and related issues contributing to thousands of dollars in overtime pay at the prison.

But adding a $45,000 salary may not address that, Kessling said.

Wheels for Rik?

Kessling also asked commissioners why the budget doesn’t include a vehicle for transporting Rik, the law enforcement dog in the sheriff’s office.

“We weren’t asked,” Beam told Kessling.

About a year ago, the county took ownership of a used vehicle to transport Rik, bought with donations in support of the department’s K-9 program. But that vehicle has repeatedly broken down and Sheriff James Ott doesn’t want to see more money spent on repairs. So the department and Rik’s handler, Cpl. Justin Bennett, are currently soliciting donations for an appropriate vehicle that could cost as much as $35,000.

“I wanted to go that route first because that’s the way the program was set up,” Ott said. “But if it doesn’t work, we’ll look for some other options.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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