The Madison County Board voted 17-11 to freeze pay increases for 362 non-bargaining unit employees in an effort to save money as the county looks at a projected $3.7 million deficit in the general fund as a result of COVID-19.
The wage freeze rescinds the 2.25 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase that had been set on Dec. 1, 2019. It does not pertain to COLA increases for union employees.
According to a report, the county has 362 non-bargaining employees, which includes department heads, elected officials, the county board, temporary employees, summer youth workers, and other non-union employees.
During the Aug. 19 meeting, Republican board members and Democratic board members Robert Pollard and Bruce Malone voted in favor of the wage freeze. The remaining Democratic board members voted against it.
Chief Deputy Auditor Jennifer Zoelzer said the county is looking at the revenue falling more than $3 million under what was projected.
“Along with what our budgets are, the original approved budgets added to the re-appropriation requests that were approved, that would get us to a $3.7 million deficit for the general fund only for 2020,” she said.
“I know some of that 3.7 is being offset by the voluntary budget cuts that department heads and elected officials had discussed with the county board office earlier in the year,” she added.
Zoelzer said federal and state COVID money may not be used to these offset revenue shortfalls.
Board member Phil Chapman (R) commended the Personnel and Labor Relations Committee for their research into the issue.
Chapman said the resolution will save the county approximately $1 million and will allow current employees to keep their job in the wake of a “critical shortfall” in funding due to fewer sales taxes.
“It seems a small price to pay to keep our many fine workers in place to provide high quality services to our county residents, some of which have been fired, furloughed, and who remain unemployed,” Chapman said.
Board member Matt King (D) had some questions about the resolution, mentioning that the Madison County Health Department recently received approximately $4 million.
“We say it’s because of COVID, and correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of this COVID we’re getting reimbursed on many levels,” he said.
Board member Don Moore (R) responded that the grant the Health Department received is to hire contact tracers. He said revenue losses will still have to be offset.
King also asked why they are finding out about the resolution now and why it must be decided right away.
Board member Erica Harriss (R) responded that the wage freeze is not the county’s first method of saving money. She explained that department heads met and came up with ways they could save money voluntarily, resulting in approximately $1.2 million in savings. County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza added that other county officials also found ways to cut from their budgets to save money.
Harriss said that the county needs additional money-saving avenues, because “COVID is not going away; and, therefore, our sales tax is going to be down.”
“We can call this whatever we want,” she said, “but what we’re looking at is a revenue shortfall that we believe is going to last into next year.”
Harriss added that federal COLA guidelines were 2.8 in 2019, 1.6 in 2020, and are expected to be 0.3 for 2021.
King also asked why the county is so broke, questioning if there are reserves intended for emergencies.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked in government for quite a few years now for Republican administrators and Democratic administrators,” he said. “But it seems like there’s always something there for a rainy day in case, cause you always plan for the worst and hope for the best. This almost seems like one of those times that fits that.”
He added that everyone is experiencing projected falls and that they are making decisions with projections rather than solid numbers.
“Can we negotiate and look at this a little harder?” he asked. “I think we have time.”
Board member Tom McRae said he appreciates county officials and department heads who found ways to voluntarily save money and said freezing COLA will help make sure they are “ahead of the game.”
McRae also said he is proud of the fact that Madison County did not panic in response to COVID, that no employees were laid off or furloughed, and that the property tax levy remained flat.
“Because that is the easy thing to do,” he said, “is to raise property taxes. The hard thing to do is to sit down and try to find out ways to make small sacrifices among a large group of people.”
Board member Mike Parkinson (D) voted against the resolution, but said he “clearly” didn’t want to see the county go into deficit and is not against making cuts.
Addressing board chairman Kurt Prenzler, Parkinson also said the deficit is not a result of COVID-19.
“You can blame this on whatever you want,” he said. “You can tell whatever story you want, but I told you two years ago by this time you were going to be broke.”
“I told you at the end of this year you were going to be broke,” he added, “and here we are. We’re broke.”
“And now you’re going to put it on the backs of the workers of Madison County who do these things day in and day out to keep this county going,” he continued. “You can blame it on COVID all you want, but you are responsible, Kurt. You and your administration.”
Board member Mick Madison (R) said Parkinson's remarks were "demagoguery during an election year."
"You know, we run a tight ship. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. I believe Mr. Parkinson voted for all the budgets. I could be wrong, but that’s the way I believe it went down.
“People out there, the taxpayers … we do this for them, not for us. They are hurting right now. Many many of them are hurting. We know that. We see it everyday. We hear it from friends and family every day. We see it on the news. And it’s up to us to tighten our belt. We’re already giving a break on property tax payment, so we know that this is going to be coming down the road.
“It’s up to us to adjust and act accordingly,” he said.
The move to freeze pay increases due to a revenue shortfall comes several months 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 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 explained that they offered extra compensation in response to a memo by former 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.