BOCC questioning new pay matrix

WALLACE –– Misunderstanding or misinformation? That was the question Commissioner Dave Dose was trying to get answered on Wednesday morning.  

Last week, the Shoshone County Commissioners approved a request from the clerk’s office to transition to a new pay matrix for several departments within the courthouse.  

This change was fueled by reported challenges within the clerk’s office, due to each department operating under its own matrix, which reportedly made handling the monthly payroll difficult.  

During the previous meeting, Interim Clerk Peggy White explained that, within the new matrix, each person would be getting a minimum 1% raise, while others would see higher increases based upon longevity – All as part of an effort to bring a more unified pay structure countywide. During their most recent budget cycle, the county earmarked $148,000 for wage increases.  

The board voted in favor of the new matrix, despite the expedient nature of the request, reportedly because the monthly payroll deadline was just days away. However, after the October payroll was completed, Dose investigated the adjusted wages and was startled by the results.  

According to a document Dose handed out during Wednesday’s meeting, the range of raises given to employees under the new system was between 1.68% and 19.66%, with an average of 5.25% across the board.  

“The promise that I voted on last week was that this was not a new matrix and the only changes we would see was that 1% increase and the longevity increases,” Dose said. “The average raise was 5%, a significant difference.”   

Dose was concerned by what he has perceived as an omission of information, because he was under the impression that the raises began 1% and the increased marginally based upon longevity, not the significantly higher numbers he discovered through his own research.  

“I asked at that meeting several times if we were giving an average 1% wage increase and the answer I got back clearly was that, yes we were,” Dose said. “We were giving a 1% wage increase and that also included would be a few folks who had longevity increases, which I counted about 10 or 12 of those. That was repeated multiple times. 

We were promised that there were no changes other than that. Our goal was to help the folks who didn’t get the raises with the Sheriff’s Department, Public Works, or Solid Waste over the last couple of years. We also recognize the reason we want a wage study is that there are so many disparities and we wanted to make things more even.”  

The representatives from White’s office, including Lori Osterberg and Timmie Hunter, explained that the raises given were part of their efforts to bring the different departments into a more aligned pay scale, and because of the disparities between the different existing matrices, different departments and employees saw different percentage increases.  

Dose understood their explanation, but countered by asking who made the determinations on which employees got what increases, pointing out that an employee in his office received a near 20% increase due to what was reportedly listed as a “supervisor role,” but none of the commissioners had any input prior to the decision being made by the clerk’s office.   

According to both Commissioners Dose and Jeff Zimmerman, the county plans on reexamining its pay matrices following the completion of a wage study, which means that no matter what decision is made concerning the recent interim matrix, the county will be readjusting their wage scales once they have the information from that study.  

Dose went on to request that the new matrix be repealed so that he and his fellow board members could review and potentially determine what course of action could be taken regarding wages.  

Commissioner Zimmerman disagreed with making any immediate changes, instead suggesting that the board wait until Commissioner Tracy Casady could join them for further public discussion and possible decision.  

“I believe what this was supposed to do was to catch up other employees that were left far behind,” Zimmerman said. “My understanding was that there were employees left far behind. What I would like to do is to know how and why for these different employees, and what was behind these raises before I would go forward.”  

Dose did suggest offering a blanket percentage raise to the affected employees, his proposed number was the same average number of the raises that were handed out within the interim matrix, at 5%. Reportedly, this would total out to $76,848.52 paid out throughout the year – roughly half of what the county had set aside for wage increases.