BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE— During the final discussion prior to its upcoming budget hearing, Bradford County commissioners consented to a 5% increase for its employees.
Commissioner Danny Riddick fought hard for a 5% pay raise for general county employees in departments like public works. He wanted everyone to receive something, but pay increases had only been budgeted by the constitutional officers.
Likewise, the state has mandated a $15 minimum wage for paramedics and EMTs, although it didn’t pay for the mandates as it had when raising the salaries of sheriff’s deputies and jail correctional officers.
Riddick’s $283,000 plan did not include money to alleviate salary compression among emergency medical employees — at least not as much as Fire Rescue Chief Ben Carter would have liked.
Carter approached the board at a prior workshop with a $317,000 plan to differentiate the salaries of the newer and the more experienced employees. Without that, many would be making the same $15 an hour. That would be true regardless of whether they were EMTs or paramedics.
He returned to the Sept. 6 meeting with a modified plan that asked for much less — $34,000 — at least for year one. The following two years would require an additional investment of $120,000.
Carter said it was a slower approach to address salary compression in his department.
Commission Chairman Chris Dougherty said raising the minimum wage was mandated but dealing with compression was not.
“It puts us in a pretty much impossible situation,” Carter said.
“It does us, too,” said Dougherty.
At first, board members, including Carolyn Spooner and Diane Andrews, began to see Carter’s reduced request as reasonable. It included leaving his former administrative position vacant. But Riddick was looking for something fair for a wider group of employees.
The tax collector and property appraiser budgeted raises for their employees. Many in the sheriff’s office had their base salaries raised thanks to a state allocation. The state also required emergency medical staff to make a $15 an hour minimum wage, and the county budgeted for that increase. Left out were the board’s other employees.
Riddick’s plan to give a 5% raise to the remaining employees, including the firefighters in fire rescue who did not receive a minimum wage increase, would cost $283,000. All of the employees are important, he said, and he didn’t want to single out one group to address compression without providing a raise to everyone.
By 2026, all employees will be making at least $15 an hour by the will of the voters. Riddick said the county can work toward that each year instead of dealing with a large increase all at once.
Spooner said there was a significant difference in the cost of what Carter and Riddick were each proposing, however. Carter said the 5% raise does not address paying EMTs and paramedics the same salary despite their different skill levels. That will impact retention and recruitment, he said.
Dougherty said the county budget is in the red every year, but continues to add to its costs.
“We continue to talk about cutting and then we add and add,” he said, wondering how much the contract in place with the union was also going to further increase costs.
Carter said all of the benefits of the contract are still in place, and it is coming up for renegotiation again next year.
The contract entitles fire rescue employees to any increase received by the board’s general employees. Riddick said if the board approves a 5% raise now, then it could refuse any requested increase next year.
“Union contract or no union contract, if we don’t have the money, we don’t have the money,” he said.
Per Sexton, emergency medical employees slated for an increase to $15 an hour should first see their salaries raised by 5%. Otherwise, the 5% pay raise would be on top of the $15 an hour wage.
Spooner saw the advantage of helping more employees and taking steps toward the $15 minimum wage for all new hires.
Carter warned multiple times that not dealing with compression and differentiating salaries based on experience and skill could lead to an exodus of employees and trouble replacing them.
“I just need to paint a very clear picture that if people leave from this, and we don’t have the staffing, that means ambulances will be shut down and fire trucks will be shut down. That means when you call 911 you may not get an apparatus coming to you. I don’t mean to sensationalize it. I don’t mean to make this dramatic thing. But I think that that picture needs to be very well painted before the five of you,” he said.
Dougherty said the special assessments and franchise fees discussed earlier in the meeting should be in place before any of this is considered.
A consensus of the board, including Spooner and Andrews, agreed to back Riddick’s plan.
Dougherty told the board when it comes time to vote on new revenue sources, they should remember it’s the right thing to do.
“I know this room’s going to fill up with people. We have to understand that what we’re doing is just trying to get caught up,” he said, adding these steps should have been taken in a more deliberative way in the past.
