Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Allen County Council Lowballs Highway Engineer Salary

Last year the Allen County Council decided to split the highway director's job into two positions - one to work as an engineer and the other oversee the department's budget. This seems like a reasonable decision but the problem is they have decided to lowball the engineer's salary compared to the manager/bureaucrat:
The engineer will earn a salary of $67,083 this year, Auditor Lisa Blosser said.

In November, the County Council agreed to set Hartman’s salary at $75,000 for this year. Fitch had earned close to $85,000.

But some council members were concerned the county wouldn’t be able to find someone qualified to assist Hartman, who is not a licensed engineer, for the proposed $65,000 salary.

Hartman was delayed in searching for an engineer because of the salary issues, which were tied to concerns about Hartman’s own salary and appointment.

The County Council had refused to bump up Hartman’s pay from $55,749 after Bloom voted for his appointment in September.

Ok so just a quick rehash.

1. Previous guy doing two jobs was paid $85k
2. Hired a bureaucrat at $75k
3. Hired an engineer at $67k

Am I the only one that think the engineer should be getting paid more than the bureaucrat here? I mean who really has the responsibility? One guy has to design and oversee bridge construction and the other budgets the projects (probably w/ significant input from the engineer). Do we really want to lowball the salary for a position that has a major impact on public safety?

Of course it couldn't have anything to do w/ the fact that County Councilwoman Linda Bloom has a social relationship with bureaucrat right?

The County Council had refused to bump up Hartman’s pay from $55,749 after Bloom voted for his appointment in September.

They called for the commissioners to vote again and for Bloom to abstain because she has been socially linked to Hartman.

The commissioners voted again in December with Bloom abstaining and reaffirmed Hartman’s position as highway director.

Nah...

1 comment:

LP Mike Sylvester said...

I would rather pay one person to handle both positions. YOu are listing salaries, you also have to consider benefits.

Mike Sylvester