Carbon County officials approved a 3% pay increase for nonunion employees this week.

During the annual salary board meeting, the board discussed several items before approving the raises. This adds $298,191 to the budget for salaries in 2022.

Contracts for union employees are still under negotiations.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said he isn’t in favor of straight percentage raises because lower paid employees get less than higher paid employees even with the same percentage raise. This only creates a growing disparity between employees, he said.

But he voted to approve the 3% at this time until the county salary study is completed and officials have a better understanding of how the positions should be paid. The county had hoped the study would have been completed by December, but Ahner said he hasn’t seen any movement on it yet.

The board also acted on several other department head requests outside the normal annual raises and several new positions.

Prior to any vote being taken, Commissioner Chris Lukasevich pointed out that the additional requests for salary changes far exceed what the county has in its contingency for salaries.

The board took a hard stance, either letting motions die for lack of a second or denying many of the additional raises, some that would have bumped a position’s salary up over 10% above the 3% raise already approved.

Ahner said if the county were to have approved all additional increases, the county would run out of money.

Court requests

President Judge Roger Nanovic explained that two years ago, the courts and magistrates were working to bring the positions up to par with other positions.

This is basically to “catch up” to what the positions should be paid.

“In terms of some comparison, I believe that some of the information that was provided by magistrates indicate that the starting pay at places such as McDonald’s and Giant is about $16 an hour, where many of these positions are right at $16 and they are professional positions where they are doing judicial work,” Nanovic said.

The salary board in 3-2 votes denied Nanovic’s requests to increase the pay by approximately 10% of three secretary positions in District Court in Jim Thorpe; two secretary positions in Palmerton; two secretary positions in Lansford and five secretary positions in Weatherly. Nanovic and Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein cast yes votes and controller Mark Sverchek, Ahner and Lukasevich voted against the increases.

The board also approved reducing the rate of one office supervisor I from $28.86 per hour to $16.96 per hour due to the person retiring, and abolishing the positions of office supervisor I trainee and secretary II trainee in Palmerton. They established the position of a secretary I at $11.95 per hour and abolished a part-time secretary I in Weatherly.

Under adult probation, Nanovic said that the department has a total caseload of 1,547 cases, more than any other class 6 counties in the state.

The average caseload for a supervisor is 121, which is 2.5 times greater than what is expected.

Nanovic asked the county to establish two positions for adult probation supervisors, one for field supervision and the other for treatment court/administration, at $32.06 per hour. Rick Parsons, chief adult probation officer, determined that to be a fair salary. The first motion failed 3-2, while a second motion died for lack of a second.

An additional motion to establish five probation officer I positions at a prevailing AFSCME court appointed professional employees union rate died for lack of a second.

Nanovic also requested one domestic relations officer I be established at a prevailing AFSCME court appointed professional employees union rate.

He said the current caseload for enforcement officers in this position is approximately 800 per officer.

“That far exceeds any domestic relations office throughout the state,” he said, noting that the most frequent ratio is between 250 and 400 cases per office holder.

Nanovic reminded the board that the county support collection effectiveness is 80.59%, which is just above the threshold of 80% that is required for Title IV-D funds.

“If we fall below it, we jeopardize IV-D funds, which I think is in the area of $1 million,” he said. “The office is overworked.”

The motion passed 3-2, with Ahner and Lukasevich voting no.

Row offices

Like Nanovic, most row office holders came before the board with several requests for additional pay for some employees.

Clerk of Courts Tyra Boni asked for additional hourly wages for her first and second deputies. Those motions failed.

District Attorney Michael Greek asked for significant increases for his office administrator and two legal secretaries.

He reminded the board the his office leads all sixth-class counties in crime and is in the middle of the pack in fifth-class counties.

After several rounds of motions downgrading the raises, the board passed two increases, one for a legal secretary II at $16.85 per hour; and one for a legal secretary I at $13.85 per hour.

Prothonotary Kayla Semmel also asked for raises for her first and second deputies, as well as the clerk/PFAD coordinator and automation/passport processing clerk.

She was granted raises for the second deputy, from $15.43 per hour to $15.89 per hour; and passport processing clerk, from $12.07 per hour to $12.43 per hour.

Chief Public Defender Paul Levy asked to establish a full-time legal secretary at $13.18 per hour, while abolishing the part-time legal secretary position. He asked to establish the position of one social worker/case manager for two years at a rate of $18.54 per hour, to be covered with grant money. These motions passed unanimously.

Two other motions Levy made, which requested raises for the public defender officer manager and a legal secretary III failed.

Donna Gentile, recorder of deeds, requested additional 3% raises for her first and second deputies, as well as the coordinator of records/indexer, but each motion failed. Another motion, to establish the position of a part-time clerical specialist at $11.16 per hour was approved.

Register of Wills Jean Papay requested a raise for her second deputy, from $13.32 to $13.72 per hour, which passed; and a raise for the coordinator of records/genealogy/ancestry researcher to $12.07 per hour, which failed.

The story changed for Sheriff Anthony Harvilla, who requested changing the rates of four special deputy sheriffs to $18.93 per hour; and six special deputy sheriffs to $17.84 per hour.

These motions passed 3-2 with Sverchek and Ahner voting no.

Prior to the two votes, Harvilla explained these changes were to “address inequities between part-time deputy sheriffs and full-time deputy sheriffs who perform the same function.”

The positions also have the same training requirements as deputy sheriffs.

A motion to change the rate of 10 special deputy sheriff trainees from $14.53 per hour to $16.50 per hour failed 3-2, which Ahner, Sverchek and Lukasevich voting no.

Additional motions were approved to abolish two special deputy sheriff trainees at $14.53 per hour, and two special deputy sheriffs at $17.84 per hour. The board approved JNET/JTAC pay at $150 per pay period. This is the state’s public safety and criminal justice information broker.