The Marshall County Council members approved a new salary for Highway Supervisor Jason Peters.
The discussion was initiated by County Council President Judy Stone Monday morning who commented on the wealth of information provided by Waggoner, Irwin and Scheele (WIS) in company’s analysis of the job descriptions and proposed salary ranges for those positions.
Stone gave her opinion on the amount of work done by Highway Supervisor Jason Peters since Jan. 1 of this year following the retirement of the highway administrator and the current search for a county highway engineer. She noted that Peters absorbed the responsibilities of the highway administrator on top of his regular duties. He’s also had to deal with extraordinary circumstances with flood repairs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of road damage done due to the installation of new electric transmission lines, according to Stone.
Stone turned to the report by WIS which points out a recommendation that the council can increase Peters’ wage under his current job title of highway supervisor. Stone added that a recommendation of the salary change was in a letter dated at the end of June of this year by WIS representative Kent Irwin. She said she’d like to see the pay for the highway supervisor increase to $57,080.08 and have it be retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year.
Council member Penny Lukenbill said it’s not the intention to overstep the commissioners as it’s their role to determine what the job titles are to be, but Peters is performing the duties of a person in a position higher than his own. She commented that the recommendation coincides with the job description and not so much the job title.
Council member Jon VanVactor commented that the recommendation was to make Peters the interim superintendent and pay him the recommended range, but that promotion has not been made.
Councilman Heath Thornton suggested to wait and to research the information from WIS as he said it appears that all of the employees’ salaries will be adjusted in some way. He wants to do all of the adjustments at once.
Councilman Bill Githens agreed with Thornton when talking about all of the adjustments being done at once.
After further discussion, VanVactor made a motion to raise Peters’ pay up to Irwin’s recommendation of $57,080.08 retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year. It was seconded by James Masterson. Judy Stone, Penny Lukenbill, Don Morrison and Jon VanVactor gave an affirmative vote while Bill Githens and Heath Thornton opposed the motion.
Peters’ job title will remain as highway supervisor.
Commissioner Mike Delp, who had his hand raised to speak before the motion was made, said that two of the commissioners haven’t felt that it’s the right time to make the promotion.
“To me, you’ve overstepped the commissioners’ authority in doing what you’re doing,” said Delp. “We put in there [the budget] for an engineer next year. If that engineer does go through, then will we reduce Jason [Peters] then at that point? I guess that’s why I was waiting as Heath brought up to see all this play itself out over the next few weeks and see where this is going. That’s my only comment. That’s why I wanted to talk before you made the vote, but you’ve made your vote.”
The county council will enter into heavier budget discussions next week where the job descriptions and pay will be on the table.
