ROCKLAND, Maine — Faced with strong opposition from town officials, business owners and citizens, the Knox County Budget Committee and County Commissioners agreed Thursday night to cut the 2012 budget by more than $100,000.
The vote caps pay raises this year to 9 percent. The 2012 budget approved by both county boards on Dec. 1 included raises of up to 40 percent.
Commissioners agreed to hold a new public hearing and revotes after municipalities argued that the county failed to meet the public notice requirement for the original hearing.
The county was warned, however, by its human resources consultant Laurie Bouchard that capping the raises could lead to grievances or other challenges since the county sent each employee notices on how much they would receive and those raises have already been given as of Jan. 1.
“We’re in an extremely messy situation,” acknowledged budget committee member William Jones of Hope.
The budget committee voted 6-2 to cut an additional $108,710 from the previously approved county budget for 2012. That includes about $54,000 in reduced pay raises. The commissioners reluctantly followed suit on a 3-0 vote.
Commission Chairman Roger Moody defended the raises, noting that the county has known for years that the pay for employees was far less than comparable for workers. He said the timing may not be good because of the economy but that the public expects quality service and that can only be provided with quality compensation.
He said he would support the budget committee’s recommendation because he was a realist. If the commissioners had rejected the cap on pay raises, the budget committee simply needed another two-thirds vote to reaffirm its action and adopt the budget.
The public comment session of the meeting lasted for 80 minutes.
Ken Keiran, owner of Union Farm Equipment in Union, said his employees have gone two years without raises. He said many businesses and people are struggling.
“Many businesses are in a survival mode,” Keiran said.
Nate Pease of Union said common sense is needed and the county needs to realize that raises of up to 40 percent cannot be justified.
County Administrator Andrew Hart said the cap of 9 percent will affect 23 people who otherwise would be paid more than the cap.
St. George Select Board Chairman William Reinhardt said the town gave its employees no raises last year and 2 percent this year.
“We’re holding the line as best we can, you should do the same,” Reinhardt said.
Thomaston was represented by selectmen and its town attorney who argued that the raises were far too excessive compared to what towns are granting to workers.
Town Attorney Paul Gibbons said he believes the pay study commissioned by the county, at a cost of $22,230, created more inequities than it solved.
He said it appears that there was almost a gender bias with many female employees getting little or no raises.
Lee Houghton of Union said he too was upset by the raises. He noted he runs a dairy farm and must keep his expenses in line each year.
Bill Packard of Union, who served as chairman of the budget committee several years ago, also urged the boards to reconsider.
“I think there were good intentions that ran amok,” Packard said.
Lynn Talbot of Rockland, who is employed as a victim witness advocate for the county, noted she is on call around the clock. She said her pay has been well below that of other people in her job.
The cut reduced the 2012 county budget to $9.2 million, about 1.5 percent less than the 2011 budget.
On the budget committee vote of 6-2, all supported it except Randy Stearns of Camden and Lawrence Nash of Union who argued that a 9 percent cap was too great.
The two boards also eliminated $45,000 from the budget for the Maine Coast Economic Alliance. The budget committee members said they did not feel the organization presented an adequate proposal to receive taxpayer money.
A total foul up, caused largely by Knox County’s failure to give proper public notice and by allowing a commissioner to vote in absentia last December. It’s so easy to do it the right way instead of the wrong way.
You have it wrong. It was not a Commissioner who was not present at the December 1 public hearing. It was a budget committee member.
Thank you for correcting me. It was William Jones, a budget committee member, who was not present and voted by telephone.
Chairman Roger Moody says the way to get Quality work is quality compensation.
So , until now the employees have not been doing quality work , if I read his quote accurately.
And with ONLY a 9% raise the improved job performance wont be as good as if the employees received 40% pay increase.
Wow, that is one messed up system Mr Moody is involved with.
Moody also said that the county has known for years that the pay for employees was FAR LESS than comparable for workers. If I read this qoute accurately I see that a county employee may love their job and work at it as long as possible, but there comes a time when they can’t justify working a job that should be paid (and often is paid) a lot more in the private sector.
Valid points , my friend.
I fully support the right of the underpaid staffers, that so far have worked hard and done well , to leave that job and search out a job in the private sector.
I wish them all the best of luck.
In the mean time I am hanging on by my fingernails to my job.
Long hours , no bennies and low pay notwithstanding.
As Pappy always said , if it wasnt for the hard times we wouldnt have any times a’tall.
I’d say there are few county jobs that have private sector equivalents locally at least. Jail guard, emergency dispatchers, airport employees, sheriff’s deputies, emergency management personnel have no real private sector to compare to around here. Clerks, office personnel, maintenance and office managers, maybe, but I think you’ll find the scales show fewer comparable positions.
Oh stop “liking” this convoluted remark, with your easy one-click opinions. Were any of you present? With this kind of illogical thinking, the poster should consider running for office. People with experience and a proven job record should be properly compensated. To what degree is another matter.
“Chairman Roger Moody says the way to get Quality work is quality compensation.” While this may be true, it likely only applies to new hires, throwing more money at current employee to get them to be better? Epic fail. Throwing more money to bring them to comparable wages in their fields is the right thing to do, but now is the wrong time to do it, sadly it’ll need to be phased in over a long time period, but most should be happy to be employed with benefits.
They actually pay these people to govern this County?
pay peanuts, get monkeys
Looks like we already have donkeys, but we’re paying them with stacks of tax money.
They capped their raises at 9%? Are you serious? No one gets 9% these days. Highway robbery of the taxpayers!
Advertise any of the jobs at the rates they recieved before these outrageous raises and you would have no trouble filling the jobs. The entitled mentality of government is beyond belief.
Maybe every job should do this? Annual bidding? Great way to hire and motivate your employees to be the best int heir field. I agree the raises were far over the top, but ridiculous statements like yours show how out of touch with reality people are.
Best in their field. Man that’s a good one. RFLMAO!!!
We have “pink slime” in our meat and “green slime” in our government.
Finally enough people speaking up were heard and able to make a change. Maybe the politicians will start seeing that the rest of us non-government workers are gettting zero or no raises, unemployed, or are retired and eating away at our savings.
They should spend the money as if it were theirs not ours!
Who did they pay $22,230 to study their salaries?? With 2 hours of internet and e-mail access I could have told them what the employees in other counties make.
Why did they spend the money , trying to justify their existence?
For the same reason the dog licks himself.
Because they could.
This was done to keep the administrator from having to do his job.
The average raise in Knox County is 6%. Knox County is made up of small businesses who are certainly not giving 20% raises. Believe me ….. with over 700 people unemployed in Knox County … amny of them with College Degrees in Business …. I’m sure they would be quite happy with a position in gov’t. The benefits alone are worth 30% !!!!!
40 present raises are you serious…
Time to let County Government go. Do we really need it.
9% to 40% raises???? What are they thinking????
Every other single business is cutting back. Time to weed out the commissioners and hold them accountable for OUR MONEY.