A request to increase the pay of employees under the jurisdiction of the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas to the figures approved at January’s annual salary board meeting caused heated discussion and finger pointing.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners, in a 2-1 vote, shot down a request to authorize the human resources department to process payments to court employees for those positions which were in question because of funding. The payment, if it would have passed, would have been set at the rates approved at the salary board meeting in January. Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein voted for the motion.

Those positions stayed at the 2022 salary rates.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner voted against the increases in January because they were above what was suggested from the salary study. He said before the vote that an appeals process has been set up and neither the salary board’s suggestions or the appeals process have been used by the courts.

He said that the request will use money that is in the court’s budget because of vacant positions.

“What’s going to happen when their current vacant positions are filled?” Ahner asked.

He said that if all departments would do this, it would cost approximately $409,000 above what the county has budgeted.

Ahner said that he has been an advocate for higher salaries since taking office, but the county can’t resolve the matter all at once.

He also cited the lack of overtime in the county. Employees who work over their allotted time are given comp time, meaning they can offset the hours worked by leaving early another day.

“Now we’re telling everybody that all of these people are so important but we’re giving them more time off. That’s not giving them anymore money in their budget. They’re still making, if they make $36,000, they’re still making $36,000,” he said, saying it would be nice to instead give them the money they need to buy food.

“I’ve never seen a system like this,” Ahner added. “ ... We’re not treating our people right. I see that and I want these people to get overtime.”

County costs rising

Nothstein said the county’s insurance costs went up $67,000 for next year. He said the county, while it has a fund balance, has been running in a deficit for a few years.

“I agree 100% that those people at the lower end definitely deserved that salary and there’s others at the top of the management level that should be more or are overpaid, but you know nothing was done to compensate for the increases of many things going back,” Nothstein said. “How many things have gone up over the years but yet nothing was done to decrease the deficit of this county?”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said he felt the motion “was an attempt to rob Peter” to pay Paul “without any concern for the impact on Peter.”

President Judge Roger Nanovic said that the salary study and wage scale given to the department heads on Dec. 8, 2022 was said to be a “suggestion” on what should be paid for each position in each office; however it wasn’t explained that the suggested salaries were the only ones funded and no further increases would be funded.

The motions were approved 3-2 in January, but were later rolled back by the board of commissioners in a 2-1 vote.

“Two commissioners on this board said we’re not going to fund it in essence, we really don’t care what the salary board set salaries at. We’re not going to fund it,” Nanovic said, adding that the commissioners cited a case out of Monroe County as their reasoning for the rollback.

“This board not only passed the budget, they appropriated the funds to fully fund the budget of the salaries we’re talking about,” Nanovic continued. “We’re not asking you to take anything from anywhere else. We’re saying you should apply the funds that you’ve budgeted and appropriated for salary purposes.”

Nanovic said he had discussions with both the county’s financial adviser and the county solicitor, and said the funds are there for salaries and the county is not doing that in this situation.

“So if the money is there, if the law says it should be used for these purposes, I guess if this motion is voted down, we have two commissioners saying we don’t care what the law says. We don’t care what our attorney advises us. We’re going to vote against it. All I am asking is that you do the right thing. You follow the law and you pay the people some fair compensation that was approved by the salary board. Let’s get it behind us. We’re talking about $25,514.60 for 22 employees and of those 22 employees, six have already left. Why? Look at the salaries you set and maybe it will tell you what’s going on.

“I think this county needs to wake up and do the fair thing for the employees to make sure, like Commissioner Ahner said, we want to respect our employees. We want to do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing for the 22 employees who have been neglected.”

Ahner responded to Nanovic, saying that some of the motions he made above what the commissioners suggested didn’t address the disparities, but rather continued them.

“You can’t say we’re not looking out for people,” he said. “The thing is people aren’t getting paid or being paid fairly and right here, if I look at it again, the top person is getting $3.36 more and the ones down at the bottom are getting 38 cents ... If you want to distribute money, then distribute money evenly because the secretary down at the bottom works just as hard as the administrator at the top.”

Accusations made

Lukasevich accused Nanovic of being hypocritical, saying that he was being selective in choosing to apply this law, but not follow the requirements of Act 57 of 2020.

Nanovic shot back that time and time again, Lukasevich has said this in public without the courts having an opportunity to respond.

He said that he had told him time and time again, once at a previous commissioners’ meeting, that under a discussion with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, the requirement of the courts with regards to complying that officers under the supervision of the courts are not subject to the act, but Lukasevich doesn’t want to acknowledge that fact.

“He wants to raise red herrings,” Nanovic said. “It’s improper. It’s unfair. It’s disrespectful.”

Lukasevich said he did not feel that way and said the courts say the county must adhere to the law, however he feels they are not following their own words.