The Madison County Personnel Committee on Monday unanimously voted to freeze pay increases for non-bargaining unit employees.
The County Board is expected to vote on the wage freeze at tonight's meeting.
The resolution they voted to approve would rescind the 2.25 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase that had been set on Dec. 1, 2019.
Chairman Kurt Prenzler said the administration is looking for cost-saving measures with the least impact on county services for the fiscal year 2021 budget.
“Since the start of the COVID crisis, the county has experienced a revenue shortfall,” Prenzler stated in a press release. “Our sales tax revenues and fees are down.”
Personnel Committee Chair Erica Harriss said the decision to freeze pay increases was not easy but prevents layoffs.
“Despite an unprecedented revenue shortfall during this time, responsible fiscal management has afforded the county the ability to avoid employee layoffs,” Harriss stated.
The county will make the same COLA freeze request when it negotiates with its nine bargaining units, or unions, this year.
According to the press release, the wage freeze will save the county approximately $1 million. It will be for both full- and part-time positions, which includes 362 non-union employees and 579 union employees.
The move to freeze pay increases due to a revenue shortfall comes after four Madison County departments sought extra compensatory (comp) time for employees who worked in-person during the COVID-19 shutdown in March. The Madison County Board voted against the requests in April.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Department, Recorder’s Office, Auditor’s Office and State’s Attorney’s Office asked for the extra compensation for the payroll ending March 27. In addition to the compensatory time, the Recorder’s Office also requested extra pay for two employees.
According to the “COVID-19 Additional Benefits Report,” the extra compensation created a liability of at least $380,559.66.
A chart laying out each department’s detailed request shows that the departments requested a total of 11,101.72 comp hours for union and non-union employees.
Additionally, the Recorder’s Office requested 105.5 additional hours of pay, which translates to $5,740.68 in additional earnings for two employees.
However, State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons later pointed out that his office’s numbers were inaccurate in the chart because some of those comp time hours were awarded for working overtime while assisting a murder trial in Jersey County. He explained that the victim was kidnapped in Madison County and killed in Jersey County, so some of his staff aided in those efforts. He added that those employees agreed to accept comp time instead of overtime for the extra hours worked.
Each of the department heads argued that they offered extra compensation in response to a memo by County Administrator Doug Hulme indicating that all non-essential personnel who were not expected to work from home would still be paid regular wages, meaning they were receiving paid time off.