Editor’s note: Due to the size and complexity of the Carbon County annual Salary Board meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, where new salaries were set for all employees, the Times News has broken out departments based on the exhibits distributed at the meeting or on departments.

Employees in Carbon County’s court system have new salaries, however, they are not as much as the president judge believes they should be.

On Tuesday, following a discussion about the agenda position for the courts, President Judge Roger Nanovic presented his proposal for the approximate 82 employees under the court umbrella.

Nanovic was the sole official to break with the initial proposed salaries that were given to department heads. Other department heads chose to keep the recommendations as their first motion and then make additional motions altering the new salaries once they had been approved.

Prior to beginning his motions, he commented on the matter, saying that the county handed out the scale on Dec. 8, which was not the same scale the board received from Evergreen Solutions, the company hired to complete the salary study.

“It (the study) apparently suggested where the position that each employee for each office is placed on that salary scale,” Nanovic said. “It is my understanding and my belief that the intent was number one, to do an objective, fair evaluation of all salaries within the county to see that the employees of this county are fairly compensated ... I believe that the employees are most important, significant asset that this county has and I think it’s important and critical that they are fairly compensated.”

He said that the handout the department heads were given on Dec. 8 has many inequities in the scale, adding that it doesn’t take into account the numbers of years that the employees have served in this county.

“To me, it’s a slap in the face to an employee who has served here three or six years, to say they are given no recognition for their service and will be treated the same as someone who steps in the door today,” Nanovic said, adding that he had questions following the information that was provided.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that this is a process and these actions were the first step in the process of fixing the salaries.

“The adopted sale and proposed salaries included minimum wage from $11.38 to $13 per hour, raising the bar for all,” he said, adding that job descriptions were then used to place employees in the appropriate grade and step based on what HR had. The total proposal brought the proposed increases to an additional $800,000 if nothing was changed by row officers and approved by the board.

Ahner added that changing what the county proposed and budgeted for 2023 could have a “domino effect” across the scale and could force a large tax increase in the future.

He also cited additional motions to increase salaries, some upwards of $6,000 without justification.

“If we don’t start somewhere, we’re going to be right back, doing the same thing again,” Ahner said.

Nanovic said that based on what Evergreen recommended, the county could have afforded the 6 percent increase across the board that was proposed several months ago and then shot down by the commissioners 2-1.

“I understand fully why the county wants to increase the lower end of the scale. I understand that it’s justifiable,” Nanovic said, adding that the study showed 80 percent of the employees were below the mid-average of pay based on surveying the surrounding counties. “It explains why we’re constantly losing employees. The study was needed but it seems to me that the study should have been implemented in accordance with the recommendation (of Evergreen). But the commissioners decided not to follow that.”

Nanovic cited inflation, and cost of living that wasn’t taken into account.

He then made a motion to accept the court’s proposal for salaries. The motion failed 3-2, with Nanovic and Commissioner Nothstein voting in favor of the proposal, while Controller Mark Sverchek and Ahner and Commissioner Chris Lukasevich voting no.

Nanovic warned that the county was risking the experienced employees by not fully evaluating and compensating all employees.

Following the failed motion, Nanovic took each position one at a time, making several motions for each position in some cases before new salaries were approved.

In the end, salaries were set closer to, if not exactly, what the county had proposed last month under the new wage scale.