FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County's justices of the peace on Monday began eyeing the county's pay scale, saying the ranges have been fixed since 2016 and need to be adjusted.
Lisa Ecke, justice of the peace for District 6 in Springdale and chairwoman of the the Quorum Court's Personnel Committee, said personnel costs are typically around 60% of the general fund budget. She said the budget needs to set those costs first.
"If we can stay within that 60% range we can have a clear target," Ecke said. "Let's tackle that first in the budget."
The committee reviewed a presentation made in October by Blair Johanson with the Johanson Group, the county's compensation consultants.
Johanson told the justices of the peace in October the county was about 6.8% below the market pay average in 2020. In 2019, he told them, Washington County was about 4.8 % below the market pay average.
According to Johanson, the goal has been to stay within 3% of the market pay average. The county's package of a retirement plan and other benefits make that pay level competitive with other governments and private businesses. Johanson told the justices of the peace the regional average pay was expected to increase between 2.4% and 3.3% in 29020 and recommended a 4% pay increase for the county.
Ecke said the justices of the peace choose to provide county employees with a pay raise of $130 per month in the final 2021 budget.
Ecke said the justices of the peace need to begin considering the county's personnel costs now and looking at alternatives, including merit-based pay increases. County Assessor Russell Hill briefed the justices of the peace on a merit-based evaluation system his office is working on he plans to use in crafting his 2022 budget, Hill said the system uses a mixture of hard data, such as an employee's attendance and the accuracy of their work, along with more subjective measurements of an employees "attitude.
Hill cautioned the justices of the peace just adopting a merit-bases pay raise system is no panacea.
"A merit-based system, if it's done properly, it's the best way to go," Hill said. "If it's not done properly, it's the worst way to go."
County Treasurer Bobby Hill and Circuit Clerk Kyle Sylvester both said they favor merit raises in principle, but said in practice they probably wouldn't implement such a system.
"I like the merit-based raises but in my office it would pretty much boil down to everybody getting the same thing because they're all doing a terrific job," Sylvester said.
Ecke asked the justices of the peace to consider the information presented Monday and the panel will continue the discussion next month.