By David Slone
Times-Union

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — After finishing the last 11 departments’ budget hearings Thursday, Aug. 15, the Kosciusko County Council turned toward the wage committee recommendation for 2025.

Reading the recommendation, Council President Mike Long said it was “4% across-the-board raise with the pole positions addressed mainly through clerical in the sheriff’s department that have not been addressed in the past.”

He said they were kind of the last ones brought up to date.

“Some of those are going to be substantial because they haven’t qualified for them in the past,” Long said.

“So this is kind of similar to what we did with the Waggoner Irwin Scheele adjustments, or when we had that last study. We brought up everybody up to where they truly should be. This was a request by the sheriff’s department, and I believe that the wage committee addressed that. And it is going to be painful the first year, but it’s kind of a one-and-done, and I believe that the interested parties that I talked to agree that we should do it.”

The pole position is based upon employees’ longevity and skills. For example, step 1 of a civilian pole I is an employee who is just hired in, with step II being one year; step III, three years; step IV, six years; and step V, 10 years. Pole positions are based on 80 hours biweekly, with a few exceptions.

Council Vice President Kathy Groninger, who also sits on the wage committee, said, “In summary, when you look at the other departments, they all have step-up and raises, and the only ones that did not have that was the civilian pole positions in the sheriff’s department. So, basically, once they get hired in, they would get the normal increase that everyone would get, but they never got any increase for being there for three years, five years, whatever until 10 years. And they’re the only ones in the whole county who weren’t getting that, so it didn’t seem right to completely leave them out.”

She said it was a request by the sheriff’s department, they discussed it and thought it was the right thing to do.

Long said the way that they arrived at the 4% raise was that “June to June, the advertised inflation rate was 3.4%. I don’t feel, as a county, we’re in a position at this point to go backwards with our employees. If we do less than the inflation rate, our employees are actually living on less. I’m not willing to do that, so that’s why the 4%.”

The committee also looked at 3% and 5% raises, with and without pole positions.

Councilwoman Kimberly Cates asked if they compared the salaries to any other counties of Kosciusko’s size.

Long said they did not. “And quite frankly, my views on that are we want to be aware of what’s going on in adjoining counties, but our responsibility is to our county,” he said.

Groninger said that’s why they’re putting $50,000 in the commissioners budget for next year – to do an updated study through Waggoner Irwin Scheele on the county wages. Long said it’s been six years since the last WIS wage study and 20 years before that.

“So we didn’t want to get back in the position to where we have a shock,” Long said.

Councilman Dave Wolkins brought up the inflation rate of 3.4% that Long had mentioned and asked about the current inflation rate. Long said it’s currently 2.9% because it’s continually falling. Wolkins said the Consumer Price Index was 2.9%, and Long said when they started reviewing the wages the inflation rate was 3.4%. The rate was even higher in January.

“So you’re talking about CPI though. You’re talking about Consumer Price Index,” Councilwoman Joni Truex said. “That’s different than the inflation rate. I know it’s metaphors, but Dave and I had this conversation yesterday. That’s why I’m saying there is some confusion.”

The CPI is a “market basket of goods that they compare month after month, year after year, that includes certain things like a dozen eggs, a gallon of gas, so much heating fuel, so much electricity, a loaf of bread. They literally compare the same exact things over and over, and that’s where you get your cost of living, your COLA and your CPI,” Truex explained.

Groninger said they keep taking out items that they used to include in that so it doesn’t look as bad.
Later in the meeting, Truex made a motion to approve the 4% increase across the board, except the surveyor’s office as it’s to be determined what those should be paid, and those employees with a step increase for further consideration. Her motion died for lack of a second.

Wolkins said, “As we went through this whole process, every budget is up to a certain extent on requests. It’s always because of inflation and so forth. One percent difference in salaries is a huge number, no question about it, and at some point taxpayers are absolutely getting hammered right now because of assessments, no question about it. … I would feel more comfortable with a 3% rather than a 4%.”

He also agreed with the pole positions.

Cates agreed with Wolkins, but also wanted to exclude the surveyor’s office for further consideration.

Councilman Tony Ciriello said if they did the 4% plus pole positions, that would be a huge impact on the county that he didn’t think they should do. He agreed the county employees did deserve a raise of some sort, and the sheriff’s employees did deserve the pole positions.

“But I don’t know what the economy is going to be like next year. We’ve been on the verge of a recession for a while. It hasn’t hit yet, but that’s not to say it’s going to hit later this year or next year, and when it does, that affects our bottom line, and affects what we can do,” he said, adding that he agreed with Wolkins.

Cates made a motion to approve the pole position step increase and the 3% raise across the board, excluding the surveyor’s office budget for further review. Wolkins seconded the motion and it passed 6-1, with Truex opposed.

Requests for new employees will be decided at next week’s meeting.

Surveyor’s Office

During discussions on the surveyor’s office, Long said the county is going to be faced with a change for next year as current surveyor Mike Kissinger did not seek re-election and Jim Moyer won the Republican primary in May and Moyer is unlicensed as a surveyor.

“At this time, the wage committee is continuing to analysis and cover all of our basis on this because it’s never been presented to the county before, and we will have that recommendation next week at our budget session where we all can discuss it at that time,” Long said.

That budget session is at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21.

Long asked Kissinger to comment on the state statute that governs licensed versus unlicensed surveyors. Kissinger and Moyer presented the proposed 20205 surveyor’s office budget on Wednesday.

“There actually is no such thing as a non-licensed surveyor. You’re either a surveyor or you’re not a surveyor.

This would be a non-licensed county surveyor,” Kissinger said. “So, a non-licensed county surveyor can’t do section corner work, which is a statutory requirement of that office, so you have to contract that out. You can not survey or design any ditch projects, any county-regulated drain projects, and that’s the second statutory requirement for the county surveyor — is to take care of the county-regulated drains. So those are the two main things.”

The county surveyor also is responsible for writing legal descriptions for voting precincts. A non-licensed county surveyor can’t do that either.

Long asked how the statute reads as far as the county surveyor’s compensation.

“The statutory requirement is, if there’s a licensed county surveyor, he has to make 1-1/2 times more money than a non-licensed county surveyor. That’s the statutory requirement,” Kissinger said.

Ciriello said since Moyer is not a licensed surveyor, the county can just pay him the base salary. Kosciusko County has not had a non-licensed county surveyor in the last 64 years, Kissinger mentioned.

“It’s unfortunately put us in a position we’ve never been in before,” Long said.

Wolkins suggested the council needed to get a legal opinion on whether or not it could reduce the base salary. Cates said they needed to reevaluate the situation and the surveyor’s office budget because they’re going to have a lot of contracted services. Truex said Kissinger’s estimate for those contracted services next year would be $170,000 to $200,000.

Truex said people also go into the surveyor’s office to ask the office to look at legal descriptions and they won’t be able to do that anymore without someone having a surveyor’s license.

Long said he just brought the issue of the surveyor up because he knows it’s been a “hot topic of discussion” and the council will have to deal with it next week. The wage committee was not ready to make a recommendation as of Thursday’s meeting.

Kissinger brought up a position that is going to be eliminated for the surveyor’s office for next year.

“I’m just asking the county — this is an employee who, no fault of his — that position is going to be gone. He’s been with the county 30 years, and he’ll be like 16 months from being 65 years old,” he said. “I would just urge then, and I hope it’s in the budget, to be able to consider unemployment pay. I know the county’s been very — and I guess it’s more controlled by the state when you pay unemployment, but I just wanted to bring that up.”

Groninger asked why the position was being eliminated. Kissinger said he didn’t know and he couldn’t answer that.

“So in other words, I guess the question I’m really trying to get to is, because of the changes within the office, is there a particular reason why this job is not needed anymore?”

Kissinger said he had no idea.

“I’m concerned about, like anyone else would be as a taxpayer, but the incoming surveyor feels like he can do that, so that’s the answer I guess,” he said.