County employees get boost with pay changes

County employees will see a pay boost under changes to the compensation plan approved by supervisors at the February 3 meeting of the Taylor County Board.

Under the change, county employees will receive at least a 2.5% pay increase or if they have at least five years of service will be brought up no lower than step four on the pay matrix.

With job positions ranging from mechanics to engineers and nurses to investigators, Taylor County utilizes a complex pay matrix with pay determined by the skill/responsibility rating of the position represented by letters from “A” at the low end to “S” at the highest and the years of longevity. Employees can move up in pay either through incremental step increases or by transferring into a position with a higher job rating such as moving into a management position.

In addition, employee salaries move based on longevity with step increases being between two and three years apart. Under that plan, it would take about 16 years for an employee to move from the lowest to the highest pay steps in their job grade.

The criticism of this plan was that the pay increases, especially for newer employees, is slow and the county is lagging behind market conditions and not being competitive when it comes to hiring compared to similar public and private sector employers.

Under the plan approved by supervisors last week, the overall base wages in each step will increase and the number of steps will increase so that rather than a 2.5% jump every two years, there will be a 1.25% step increase every year.

Patrick Glynn of Carlson Dettmann Consulting, proposed the changes to address concerns raised in the recently completed compensation study he did for the county.

Glynn explained that the county’s plan is based on being at the 50% point with half of employers above and half below. He noted this is a common target for many employers.

Glynn cautioned that the plan as presented does not fix every problem, nor is it a guarantee that they will be able to get positions filled.

“I can give you a structure that is reasonable. I cannot make bodies appear,” Glynn said, noting the goal is to get the county to the point where they are at least competitive.

Supervisor Mike Bub questioned how the plan worked, noting that he came on the board after the last overhaul of the compensation plan which occurred in 2013.

“You are getting rewarded for longevity, not performance,” Bub noted.

Glynn explained that if an employee received “meaningful discipline” such as suspension or a corrective action order, the county could say they are not eligible for a step increase. He said the county would want to refine that further to set what was not acceptable performance.

Bub said he was more concerned with the high achievers. “If an employee is just really, really good, but there is another who does a minimum there is no reward for an exceptional employee in the pay structure,” Bub said.

“You are dead on,” Glynn said, noting that matrix makes no distinction between the “rockstar” and those who are just on the bubble.

Bub said he felt that recognizing quality employees would help with employee retention.

The biggest question on the minds of supervisors was with how the county would pay for the new plan. County fi nance director Larry Brandl said about $62,000 was included in the budget for increases. He said in addition, the county sold a house that had been used for an offender who was released back into the community and was leased by the Department of Corrections. That individual has since left the area. In addition, he said the county sales tax collections are higher than what has been budgeted and there is room to apply that to help with wages going forward.

“We don’t have to take out of reserves for 2022 to pay for this?” Bub asked.

“Correct,” Brandl answered. Supervisor Lester Lewis said that in the short term they are able to cover this, but that the county still needed to decide how they would increase revenue to cover needed expenses. Counties are under a state revenue cap with the amount of possible tax increases limited by growth. State law allows the county to hold a referendum to exceed that cap. In addition debt service is outside of the revenue cap amount.

Bub cautioned that the county also needed to look at things like working conditions and flexibility as ways of being creative in attracting and retaining workers. “I don’t think it is always about money anymore,” Bub said.

For his part, supervisor Scott Mildbrand was concerned about the ongoing expense noting that changes to the plan will cost $357,000 this year and that becomes part of the base for future budgets. He said the county needed to find a way to increase revenues but also look at decreasing expenses.

He said one approach is to have fewer employees who get paid more, noting that there are savings on benefits with fewer employees.

In the end, supervisors approved the new compensation plan. It was made retroactive to the start of the first pay period in 2022.

Ambulance staff

Taylor County will have full time ambulance crews stationed in Medford, Rib Lake and Gilman 12-hours a day, seven days a week. Additional hours will continue be filled by on-call and volunteer EMTs.

The change is expected to decrease response times while ensuring there is coverage during the busiest times of day while not drastically increasing costs for the county.

Taylor County EMS Manager John Deal explained that staffing the ambulances requires about 70,000 work-hours per year with the minimum of two EMTs per ambulance. He explained that because of call volumes many of the on-call volunteers are having hours far higher than they want or need. He also noted that with current rules, the EMTs are allowed to be up to 15 minutes drive from base. What this means is there could be a 15 minute delay before an ambulance even gets on the road. He said having staff in house would improve response times. In addition, during the day it is more challenging for the volunteer EMTs who work in their full-time jobs to be able to respond.

Deal explained the additional staffing would increase the overall payroll by $75,000 per year, compared to the approximately $589,000 budget for salaries in the ambulance service. Of this $65,000 would be covered through fees billed to the patients. The impact would be about $10,000 to the county.

Taylor County owns the ambulance service and contracts with Aspirus to run it with the county paying the hospital an annual subsidy which is the difference between billing revenue and cost of the service. Brandl estimated this at about $490,000 a year, which is put as a special levy outside of the revenue cap amounts.

Bub said he wanted to support it, but said he would feel more comfortable if there was a not to exceed amount on the subsidy. Thums agreed. “I can’t vote on it without knowing what it will cost,” he said.

Lewis said the law enforcement committee is currently working with Aspirus on a new contract and that such a cap could be worked into it. Jason Keffeler, system director for Aspirus MedEvac agreed that they could include that sort of thing in the contract. Lewis said they needed to look at the staffing level and the cost as two separate issues. As far as the staffing he said they are already paying the equivalent of nine full time equivalent positions, so it isn’t a stretch to make them nine full time positions.

Lewis said future contracts could have language that caps costs. However this raised concern from Supervisor Earl Hinkel about what happens when the department reaches the cap.

“We don’t control how many people call 9-1-1,” Keffeler said.

In the end, supervisors approved increasing the number of authorized fulltime positions from four to 12 to staff the ambulance service full time for 12 hours a day.

In other business, board members:

_ Approved entering into an agreement with Bug Tussel to complete the county’s broadband network through additional fiber installation and towers. Under the plan, Bug Tussel would utilize some of the county’s unused general obligation debt borrowing capacity to help secure loans to build the system and would be responsible for repayment of those. Bug Tussel would then erect towers and lay additional fiber in parts of the county outside the county’s previous network giving additional coverage throughout virtually all of the county. The project calls for an additional 77 miles of fiber optic cable to be installed. The company is seeking about a $860,000 grant from the Public Service Commission to help with the cost of the project. This is about 20-25% of the project costs.

_ Approved the pay rates for the sheriff and Clerk of Court positions for the next four years. These are elected positions up for reelection next fall and the salaries are set before nomination papers are circulated this spring. The clerk of court’s current salary is $59,114 it will go to $62,899 in 2023, $64,155 in 2024, $65,447 in 2025 and $66,758 in 2026. The sheriff is currently paid $87,298 and will go to $92,581 in 2023, $94,432 in 2024, $96,325 in 2025, and $98,259 in 2026.

_ Were introduced to Michelle Cahoon, who will serve as the county’s new public health director. According to board of health chairman Tom Hanson, Cahoon, who has worked for the county as a public health nurse for more than 2.5 years, will be the interim director until her third anniversary with the county at which time the interim portion of the title will be removed. Hanson explained that this is due to the county being a “level two” county health department which requires the health officer to have three years of public health experience.

_ Approved resolutions recognizing UW-Extension FoodWise Nutrition Coordinator Brenda Fierke for her 18-year career with Taylor County. Fierke retired from the position in January. The board also recognized Patricia Baacke for being the Taylor County treatment court coordinator from 2017 to December 2021.

Jason Keffeler