Some Jackson County road workers have expressed outrage at a proposed pay increase for managers and elected officials at a time when libraries have been closed, public safety reduced and 172 jobs cut.
"Every employee is irate right now at this raise thing," said Gene Kitchen, a county equipment operator. "How would anyone think they could get a raise with 172 employees getting laid off?"
He said the county also should be look carefully at its number of managers, especially since there will be fewer employees to supervise.
"The managers don't deserve a pay increase or reward if they are doing less work," he said.
The Jackson County Budget Committee will discuss a 3.39 percent pay increase for elected officials at 11:30 a.m. today at the Jackson County Courthouse auditorium, 10 S. Oakdale Ave., Medford. The increase also would apply to non-union staff, including managers and supervisors.
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The roads department, anticipating the loss of federal timber dollars, has left 16 positions open during the past two years. Another 16 positions will be eliminated in October under current budget proposals, bringing the total number of road crews from a high of 134 two years ago to 102. The county library system, which closed April 6, laid off the equivalent of 80 full-time workers.
Kitchen and other county road workers' views of wage freezes are different than the official position of the Service Employees International Union 503, which represented 704 workers at the county before layoffs began.
Colleen Mercer, senior organizer for the union, said she didn't want to comment on raises for managers and elected officials. But she said it's unfair to expect union workers to forego a wage increase when they've taken on additional duties after layoffs and attrition over the past few years.
"In order to keep quality people, you have to pay them a good wage," she said. "If you have to lay people off to get that, then that's what you have to do."
She said the union, which is in the midst of bargaining with the county, hasn't yet determined how much of a wage increase it will request for its workers. The county has budgeted up to 5 percent, but the final amount will depend on the outcome of ongoing negotiations.
County officials haven't calculated how many jobs potentially could be saved if there was an across-the-board salary freeze.
Kitchen expects to get a wage decrease of about $4 when he is demoted from equipment operator to laborer because of reshuffling of staff on the road department caused by the layoffs.
Randy Newby, a heavy equipment operator, expects to see his salary drop from $18.87 to less than $15 after the reshuffling.
He and other union workers, who declined to be identified, believe there should be a wage freeze for all county employees and an assessment of whether county departments are overstaffed with managers. "Instead of us getting a raise, I would like to see some guys stay and save some jobs," he said.
Referring to the proposed salary increase for county commissioners, he said, "Them getting a wage increase of 3.39 percent is just ridiculous."
County Administrator Danny Jordan said he couldn't comment on specifics of negotiations with unions.
He said that even though the county is downsizing it still must compete for the best possible employees by offering a competitive pay scale.
Jordan said that in some cases the salary gap between managers and workers has narrowed. "Pretty soon we will have staff getting more money than the managers who are managing them," he said.
Jordan said some of the salary increase proposed for managers will be offset by increases in their health insurance premiums.
Commissioner C.W. Smith remembers that when he was sheriff during the 1980s, he had to make huge cuts in his department, but union negotiations forced the county to give raises.
"We have been compelled to give raises when we didn't have the money," he said. "We didn't hear from all the union folks when we didn't have the money and we had to lay people off."
At the time, he said elected officials opted to not take wage hikes, but eventually the salary schedule got so far behind the rest of the state that it was difficult to catch up.
"Everybody loves making elected officials the whipping boy when times get tough," he said, adding that elected officials in this county work tirelessly as public servants.
Smith said it's important to give cost-of-living increases to managers so that Jackson County can retain and attract qualified candidates, and it's also important to give wage increases to the staff remaining after layoffs and other budget cuts.
"It creates a real morale problem for the employees that are left, working hard," he said.
The road department was cut by $4 million this year, funds that were specifically dedicated to the road department from federal timber revenues.
"It was a dedicated fund that we have no control over," he said.
Whether elected officials get a salary increase or not hasn't been determined, said Smith. "The budget committee hasn't made the final decision," he said.
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com.
