County Council Meeting Notes – Aug 21, 2023.   Audio of the meeting – 1st 90 minutes were on the discussions concerning a new commissioner admin assistant position. This post at Brown County Matters

• • Audio of the meeting.
  • Council Mtg Agenda Aug 21 2023
  • Commissioner Assistant Position Description
    • IC 36-2-14 County Administrator
  • Kemp Pay Grade Analysis
  • Sanders Jail AC Units

Salaries at Market Rate.  Brown County does not have the tax base of the surrounding counties to match pay in all categories. Consolidating a position to free up money to pay higher salaries is only a temporary fix.

New Loan / Higher Taxes. Commissioner Sanders identified the cost of replacing the air conditioning units at the jail at a cost $640k+. He also reinforced a need to replace the prosecutor’s office.  The paperwork on the next capital improvement loan can be started right away and the new money would be available by Jan 2023.  The last loan was increased from 2 million to 3 million with the justification being that more money could be borrowed at a historically lower interest rate without raising the current property tax rate.

How much to borrow and at what rate?  The county pays off the old loan and gets a new loan with the claim that the tax rate on the new loan will not be increased from the current rate.  This may not be the case this time around. Interest rates have significantly increased. The county’s credit rating is now under review and an adverse assessment could raise the interest rate even higher.  The amount to be borrowed is “to-be-determined” but will likely result in an increase in property taxes. Brown County Schools is also contemplating pushing for a new referendum next year (the last one failed) that if approved, will also increase property taxes.

Budget Deficit for 2024 – $900K Plus.  More expenses than revenue. The county is short at least around 900K (health insurance costs). This shortfall may not include the extra costs this year associated with increasing payroll in several areas.

NEW Position – Commissioner Administrative Assistant. Welcome to Absurdistan. This topic took up the first 90 minutes of the meeting.  I do not recall a more absurd discussion on a topic in the several years I have been attending council and commissioner meetings.

Newly appointed commissioner Wolpert has been the advocate for this new position. The new position represents a “solution” without an identification of the problem. Last year, the commissioners and council decided this position was not needed. It was converted to an HR Director position and a part-time receptionist / clerical position.  What changed?  The “need” for a new position was supported with anecdotal information, and the justification was identified as we “think” it is important and will save “thousands” of dollars.

Note that the commissioners contracted with Melissa Stinson (who applied for the new position) for budget support and other assistance as needed. Why isn’t this sufficient?
Stinsom had served in the role (admin assistant) before accepting a new position last year with another county.

“IF” there is extra money to fund the new commissioner assistant position, why aren’t these excess funds being used to fund the budget shortfalls?  This point was reinforced when the council declined to approve a $5,000 stipend for the GIS coordinator who stated that there were extra funds in the budget to pay for the increase.  Council pointed out that these excess funds may be needed to pay for health insurance claims.

Good news is that there was some pushback from council members that led to postponing the decision on the new position until it was determined that the level of funding was appropriate and available.  How will it be determined that the money is not needed to fund the budget deficit?  Stay tuned.

Controversy.  Issues with this new position have been discussed at county employee meetings facilitated by the council.  Issues included that the duties were redundant and vague, and the position was pre-selected and over-graded.

Position Management.  The issues with this new position did lead to the discovery that after 20+plus years, it was learned that the commissioners, not the council, are responsible for position descriptions (PDs). Commissioner Wolpert stated that a contractor developed the new version of the PD.  The council is still responsible for funding the position including determining/approving the grade/salary level – a needed check and balance on preventing an abuse of power.

Salary/Grade Determination.  Determining the appropriate grade and salary level requires expertise in position classification that is beyond the capabilities of the council. Consequently, the council’s decision as to pay is subjective as opposed to objective. The consequence of a subjective process is that it undermines the confidence employees have in the system for determining their pay and can undermine moral which leads to higher turnover and less productivity. The council is working to reduce the 30 pay grades (a good thing) into tiers but this change doe not address the classification issue.

Position Classification Defined: Indiana State Personnel Department (ISPD). “A job classification identifies a group of positions to have sufficiently similar duties, authority, and responsibility such that: 1) the same qualifications may reasonably be required for, and 2) the same schedule of pay can be equitably applied to all positions in the group.”

Classification can include an independent and object rating as to the grade/salary level by a personal classification specialist.  This results in a more fair, objective, and equitable process that helps prevent the perception of favoritism and abuse of power. Ref: ISPD.  https://www.in.gov/spd/files/compensation-definitions.pdf

Council Meeting Notes, July 17, 2023. 6:30 pm to 8:00.

Audio of the Meeting.

Pay and Benefits. the County Council has recognized the need to re-examine the employee compensation system to include salaries, grades, positions, benefits, et.al. It has been incremented over time with a series of “patches” and has created conditions that are not being perceived as being fair and equitable.  And given the constraints on the county’s ability to raise taxes, makes for an interesting challenge.  What has been missing in past change efforts to include requests for higher grades and new positions, has been a workload analysis linked to statutes, combined with an assessment of performance.

New Position – Commissioner Assistant at 42K a year. Commissioners (Wolpert, Pittman) pleaded that their part-time assistant position be converted to full-time so they can post the new position immediately. The current part-time position will remain for the rest of the year and the new position is to be immediately advertised.  I do not recall that the commissioners had a vote on adding the full-time position – assume this will happen at this Wednesday’s meeting.

Vote to Approve. After about a 90-minute discussion, the council voted to approve – 4 Yes (Hewett, Rudd, Kemp, Kirby), 2 No’s (Byrd, Swift-Powdrill), and 1 abstain (Redding). No discussion or details were presented as to the workload (the need). What is the current workload of the commissioners and how is this distributed among the three commissioners?

Need? The need for a full-time position emerged during the last few weeks with the appointment of Blake Wolpert.  Commissioners (Wolpert, Pittman) voted to contract with a former employee that served in the full-time admin assistant role, to help with their budget. Last fall (post-election) commissioners and council decided to re-structure the position to part-time and then create a new full-time HR director.

On-the-Job Training. When new council and commissioners are elected, I do not recall any that could hit the ground running. Some candidates generally show up for a few meetings to get a feel for the position which is not exactly good preparation.  And state statutes, along with the lack of SOPs, do not make learning about county operations, finance and budgeting an easy endeavor.   At a minimum, prospective candidates should review about 2-3 years of minutes of meetings to identify their tasks and responsibilities.  A review of the statutes identifying the requirements of the elected office would also be of value.

Budget.  The Circuit Court needed another 6K to pay for psychiatric services that are needed to assess the defendant’s ability to stand trial. This expense varies – $4,600 last year and 1$1K in 2021. The Coroner needed another $18,500 for autopsy services.