As the Carroll County Board of Supervisors gather information to be used in creating the budget for fiscal year 2016/17, they have been conducting pre-budget meetings with each individual department head. Before these meetings, the Supervisors had agreed to set a rate of 2.6 percent in salary increases for each department to match the amount agreed upon during labor union contract negotiations. This amount has been offered on a per-department basis with the department head responsible for determining the amount each individual is compensated. An issue, however, has arisen in which several departments are asking for additional compensation consideration. Mark Beardmore said special requests have been made in three of his seven pre-budget meetings and asked the other Supervisors put a stop to this practice in theirs.
Beardmore said the decision to set the 2.6 percent rate was offered as a solution to these special requests. It provides every department with the same percentage rate and still gives the department head the freedom to make merit-based increases for their employees. He added that these are good jobs with a lot more to offer than just a base salary.
Supervisor Neil Bock had created a compensation break-down for each employee that outlined their benefits, which in some cases were as much as 40 percent of the cash amounts paid. The inability of the public sector to match these types of packages is the reason Beardmore says he doesn’t see a lot of risk in losing people. Marty Danzer agreed there needs to be consistency in what is offered.
The Supervisors all agreed that this is the stance they will take when discussing compensation with the Carroll County Compensation Board.
