Carbon County salary board officials squared off against one row officer who proposed larger salary increases for her department after she assessed her two offices and restructured the way they would operate moving forward.

Clerk of Courts Tyra Boni, who won her first term in the November 2019 election and was sworn in in January 2020, requested several changes to the clerk of courts office and bureau of collections, which she oversees.

She stressed to the salary board that these requests are not salary increases, but due to the changes of duties and responsibilities, which in some positions increased by 50 percent, they are necessary additional compensations in line with the new structural operations of those positions.

“Upon conclusion of my evaluation of clerk of courts and collections bureau after taking office, it was very clear that was reported at the end of 2019 was inclusive,” Boni said. “The list of objectives to complete were both very extensive with more than four years of backlogs in collections alone. To further add to the complexity of this task, after 20 days into taking office, the director of the bureau of collections applied for FMLA and further applied for three extended leaves without pay absences, all which were granted with no expectation to return.

“This left the collections office with no one trained and no one with knowledge of the responsibilities of that position. The staff and myself quickly sought out resources to learn the duties of the position, and the last 11 months the staff has pulled together to complete the duties and responsibilities of this position so this office would not fall further behind.”

During this period of time, Boni said she learned that through the streamlining and procedural changes her office was making, as well as cross-training, the staff was now able to work more effectively and efficiently.

Boni stressed that her restructuring requests and pay changes would actually result in over $25,000 savings to her payroll expenses.

“This team has worked tirelessly to complete the enormous backlog in both offices over the past 11 months and are deserving of the proposed wages,” she said. “I feel it is important to stress this is not a pay raise, therefore it does not make sense to move along the salaried steps. It is essential in the restructure of the existing positions and compensating appropriately.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich thanked Boni for her preparation in looking at streamlining her offices and providing the county with a detailed report on challenges and accomplishments, as well as road map for the future.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein also thanked Boni and her staff for all the work they have done over the last 11 months, but said upcoming expenses may tighten that savings.

He, multiple times throughout Boni’s motions, which mostly failed 3-2, said he was not in favor of such large increases for the positions.

After several amendments to the motions by Boni, Nothstein ended each with his own motion of where he felt that step the positions should be paid at.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner and Controller Mark Sverchek both sided with Nothstein in the motions, voting no until they were amended down; while Lukasevich sided with Boni’s requests, even expressing that if Boni would accept lower compensation specifically for the second deputy, she would be doing a disservice to that individual.

Ahner pointed out some of the requests were over $3 due to changing grades and steps for that position.

“In the realignment of a department it would be fair to give between a 5% and 10% raise with the increase of duties and responsibilities with a new position such as a collections coordinator,” Ahner said. “But with the first and second deputy being current positions, what are the extra duties that warrants an increase of $3.56 and $2.71 per hour for these positions? The money that is saved by eliminating a position is savings to the taxpayer, not to distribute between remaining staff.”

In the end, the following motions for the clerk of courts and bureau of collections passed, all effective Jan. 1:

• Change the rate of one part-time clerical specialist from $10.32 per hour to $11.16 per hour. This position is currently vacant and the change represented a new starting rate that the county worked on for all departments. Nothstein cast the sole no vote for this position.

• Establish the positions of two deputy clerks at $12.07 per hour. The motion passed unanimously after first failing 3-2 when Boni requested the position be paid $12.31 per hour.

• Abolish the position of one collection clerk II/bureau of collections at $11.72 per hour.

• Abolish the position of one clerical specialist at $11.83 per hour.

• Establish the position of one collections coordinator at $13.06 per hour. The motion passed 3-2 with Lukasevich and Boni casting no votes. This motion was amended multiple times from Boni’s initial request of $14.53 per hour.

After three failed amendments, Boni asked if Nothstein had looked at the job duties of this employee, noting that this person would be the only person in this office.

“I’m reallocating the duties across the staff to abolish a position,” she said. “You take a position and ask them to do them to more without compensating them. … If you were all asked to increase your job duties by 50 percent, would you expect it to be done without compensation?”

• Abolish the position of one collection clerk II/bureau of collections at $12.07 per hour.

• Change the rate of one second deputy from $12.55 per hour to $13.32 per hour. This motion was amended multiple times from Boni’s initial request of $15.26 per hour.

• Change the rate of one first deputy from $18.34 per hour to $19.46 per hour. This motion was amended several times from Boni’s initial request of $21.90 per hour. The final motion eventually passed 4-1 with Boni voting no.

Boni rescinded her final motion to abolish the position of one director/bureau of collections at $23.92 per hour, effective Jan. 22.

Nothstein then made the motion to abolish the director position, which passed 3-2 with Boni and Lukasevich voting no.