County Compensation Board Meets

The county compensation board met Monday at the courthouse, for a meeting to discuss the salaries of elected county officials. Present at the Board were the three County Commissioners, Darold Zimmer, Donna Giacometto, and Rod Schaffer, as well as County Attorney Jeff Noble, County Treasurer Pat Phillippi, Sheriff Allen Drane, County Clerk & Recorder Carole Richards, and the members of the Compensation Board representing the community, Mike Riley and Kathy Heidel. Others present for the meeting who were not on the Board itself included Cynde Jo Gatlin, who will be taking over Carole’s position as Clerk & Recorder at the beginning of 2019, following the November election, County Justice of the Peace Cathy Landa, and The Examiner, who sat in to observe the meeting.

The meeting was called to order, and the minutes of the last meeting were held, a contentious event from last fall in which several important decisions were made, which included combining the Sheriff and Coroner positions, and reducing the Justice of the Peace position to 3/5 of full time salary. Those particular decisions will not go into effect until January 1, 2019.

The Board discussed combining the Sheriff and Coroner positions, with Commissioner Schaffer noting that combining the positions will save the county around $4000 per year.

Sheriff Drane will attend Coroner training in December.

The Board next discussed an increase in county health insurance rates – an 11% per individual increase will take place this year. Health insurance rates will go up $42 per month per individual on the most used plan, which will be paid for by the county. The most often used plan for families will go up $99 per year, the difference of which will need to be covered by the employee or elected official.

Carole Richards mentioned that according to data received from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index rose 2% in 2018 – much of the increase in cost of living expense was attributed to higher gas prices.

Before setting any sort of increase in salaries, Mike Riley asked what the budget looks like for the coming year, and whether the budget will handle an increase in salary.

Commissioner Zimmer replied that an increase would only be approved if the budget could handle it without raising taxes – that’s what’s been done in the past, as well.

While the decision to set salaries before a budget is known may seem strange, the Board noted that most other counties in the state set theirs before Powder River County, so this is not something unique to our county. Budgets are set and finalized the first week of September.

Last year, elected officials received a pay increase of 2.5% after a good amount of oil and gas revenue came in, and taxes were not increased. Commissioner Giacometto said the pay increase amounted to $88.15 per month, for her position. It was also noted that the total increase per month amounted to $1057 per month for all elected officials, or .003% of the total county budget.

The Board discussed the increase in health care costs, as well as how the elected official pay impacted other employees – for example the Sheriff’s Deputies earn a percentage of the Sheriff’s salary. Sheriff Drane said that currently the deputies have a starting wage of $17.50 an hour, while Miles City starts at $24.00 an hour, and in order to keep deputies on board locally, pay needed to keep up with other agencies.

Commissioner Schaffer said that he was satisfied with what he was getting for pay.

Jeff Noble made a motion, with Sheriff Drane seconding, to increase elected official pay by 2%, in order to keep up with the cost of living adjustment – this pay increase would only take place if taxes did not need to be raised.

In a very close vote, the motion passed 5 to 4, with Darold Zimmer, Carole Richards, Allen Drane, Kathy Heidel, and Jeff Noble voting for the increase in pay.

Voting against the increase were Rod Schaffer, Donna Giacometto, Mike Riley, and Pat Phillippi.

It was noted that the Commissioners have the final say in the matter, after the budgets are finalized they take a vote on the matter.

Another matter up for vote was whether elected officials will receive the extra $2000 for their position, as laid out in Montana statute. In the past, certain positions received this money, while some did not. The Board said that the Sheriff is required to take this money, per MT statute.

Certain jobs which require a great deal of extra work could receive these funds. For example, Carole said that her job as Clerk & Recorder required a large amount of extra time and work on election years, especially due to the increased number of election related laws and regulations which have come about over the last few years.

Additionally, with the pending closure of the local Assessor’s office, additional work will be tasked to the Clerk & Recorder, County Commissioners, and Treasurer.

In discussion of whether or not to take the $2000, Jeff Noble declined the money, as did Pat Phillippi, who noted “We’ll wait and see” on the extra work from the Assessor’s Office closure. Aletta Shannon’s position as Clerk of District Court will not receive the money, nor will the Commissioners. The Board voted that Carole’s position will receive the extra $2000 this year, as the pay begins July 1, so this November’s election will be covered. For next year, with no election, the pay increase may not be approved, but that would be something decided next year.

Cathy Landa asked how other positions were getting extra money, while her position was being cut down to 3/5 time. Commissioner Giacommetto said that since Landa was not on the Board, public commentary had to wait until the end of the meeting.

Mike asked Cathy specifically about her workload, to which Landa replied that since she was hired in 2007, her workload has doubled. She also said that if her position were to stay at full time, she would decline the additional $2000.

Kathy Heidel asked Landa, “How many average hours per week do you work”?

Landa said that while the workload depended on the week, around 30-50 hours was standard, and the position is always on call.

Commissioner Schaffer noted that his position was also on call all week, to which Landa replied that she may receive calls and have to come in at 3 AM to serve a warrant.

Replies were made that in the previous compenssation board meeting in the fall, Sheriff Drane said he had only called for an after hours search once.

Landa said that the Sheriff’s Office is only one office that she deals with others including the MT Highway Patrol, MCS, FWP.

The Commissioners said that her office needed to be open five days a week, as the position demanded, but they have recorded times which her office was closed during normal business hours.

Discussion was made that with the planned reduction in time, office hours may be cut short, while a different judge would need to be paid to be on call.

Commissioner Zimmer proclaimed that the meeting should get back on track, and asked about whether Landa would take the $2000. She declined if the position remained full time.

Jeff Noble said that the decision to reduce hours had already been made, and would be effective January 1st, and asked if Cathy would be interested in the extra $2000 for part time.

Landa replied that she can’t answer that question, until she knew about whether she would be on call during her off time hours.

The Commissioners noted that they couldn’t discuss anything regarding the full vs part time wage change, as Landa has an ongoing lawsuit against them which meant decisions about the matter would need to be made in court.

Landa’s lawsuit, a civil complaint filed October 5, 2017 in District Court, alleged that the Commissioner’s decision to reduce her pay to 3/5 time was made in violation of her rights under the Montana Constitution, particularly her right to participation in a decision of significant public interest, i.e. reduction of her pay from full to 3/5 time. The lawsuit seeks to set aside the decision, and to leave the position at full time pay. The lawsuit is currently pending.

Returning to the meeting, Jeff Noble made a motion to compensate Cathy’s position for an additional $1000, at the part time salary. No second was made, thus killing the motion.

The meeting was then adjourned.