Despite the county’s former policy that stipulated all
department’s assistant directors would receive 80 percent of the
respective manager’s salary, the county gave only one increase to
an assistant due to a new hire over the past five years, said Rich
Inman, assistant county administrative officer.
Despite the county’s former policy that stipulated all department’s assistant directors would receive 80 percent of the respective manager’s salary, the county gave only one increase to an assistant due to a new hire over the past five years, said Rich Inman, assistant county administrative officer.
The only assistant who received a raise was Assistant Planner Byron Turner, who recently received an increase after the board of supervisors hired Gary Armstrong in July to take over the vacant planning director position. Turner received a raise of nearly $12,000 after the board agreed to pay Armstrong $15,000 more than his predecessor.
In reaction to this increase, the board on Sept. 14 agreed to rid the county of the 80 percent policy. The new pay standard is based on individual pay-range schedules.
In the last couple of years, the board has had to replace two new department directors, but both received less money in their contracts than the prior director. The subtraction in pay for the department director had no effect on the assistant because a reduction in pay – to correlate with the department head’s lesser amount – was not stipulated in the contracts, Inman said.
Instead, the assistant’s pay stayed the same.
In 2009, Steve Wittry was hired as the new public works director but he received $5,200 less annually than the former department head. The assistant director’s salary stayed the same at $110,700. Wittry’s yearly salary is about $134,000.
Also in 2009, Ron Ross was hired as the new agricultural commissioner but with a contract that was $400 less per paycheck. Ross makes around $99,000 annually and his deputy receives $87,500.
Under the former Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich, the department had two deputies, one of which was Ross. But when Ross was hired the county eliminated the second deputy. With the money saved the county hired an additional agricultural inspector, Inman said.
