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Budget constraints limit county salary hikes
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BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN
STAFF WRITER
TOWANDA — Due to budget constraints, the Bradford County Salary Board at its most recent meeting reclassified only three positions out of 700 to a higher pay grade.
The reclassifications took place at a meeting on Thursday, where the county commissioners also approved a $101,000 licensing agreement for new software for the county assessment office, and voted to advertise for bids to repair the front porch of the Bradford County Manor.
Pay grades
At the meeting, the Bradford County Salary Board — whose members consist of the three county commissioners and county Treasurer Becky Clark — re-classified the assistant elections director and two clerks to a higher pay grade, which increases their salaries.
“Out of 700 workers (employed by the county), only three were re-classified (to a higher pay grade) because it was a tough budget,” said Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith, referring to the 2009 county budget that was adopted on Dec. 22 with a 4.4 percent increase in the county property tax rate.
Each year, county department heads put in requests to re-classify certain employees to higher pay grades, and it is up to the Salary Board to decide which ones to approve.
This week, the Salary Board increased the assistant elections director position from Grade 14 to Grade 16, and, as a result, Renee Smithkors, who holds the position, will see her annual salary increase from $19,911 to $21,421, said Bradford County Personnel Director Teresa Jones.
Due to upgrades in technology and the Help America Vote Act, and the increased number of registered voters in the county, the duties of the assistant elections director have increased, said county Elections Director Marie Zbyszinski. The assistant elections director needs to be able to perform many of the duties of the elections director, she said.
Zbyszinski had requested that the assistant elections director position be re-classified to an even higher pay grade, but the salary board would re-classify the position only up to Grade 16, Smith said.
The other positions that were re-classified were two part-time casual general clerks in the county Prothonotary’s Office, Smith said.
The clerk positions were re-classified from Grade 7 to Grade 10, bringing their hourly salaries from $7.59 to $8.78, Jones said.
The two clerks “were at the bottom of the wage scale,” and no other employees with similar duties were earning that wage, Smith said.
“So we brought them up to be equal to everybody else,” he said.
The commissioners also voted to seek bids to repair the front porch of the Bradford County Manor, which had been hit by a truck.
Software
The commissioners approved a software licensing agreement with Vision Appraisal Technology Inc. of Northborough, Mass., to provide an assessment and occupation data base for the Bradford County Assessment Office at a total cost of $101,000.
The expenditure for this software licensing agreement was included in the 2009 budget, Smith said.
“The software will replace the antiquated system that the county has been working on phasing out across the county,” Smith had said in his Dec. 2 “Chairman’s Report to the Taxpayers on the State of Bradford County.”
“The new (software) program will allow for many internal improvements in keeping track of assessments on an up-to-date mainstream system. This will also allow for online access for the public of records that citizens would normally have to travel to the courthouse to receive,” Smith said.
The commissioners also set the rates for using the 10 new, larger trailer sites at Hornbrook County Park, which are $20 per day, $100 per week and $250 per month. The electric rates for those 10 sites are $7 per day, $35 per week and $85 per month.
The commissioners chose to leave the rates for the other campsites in the county parks unchanged. The park regulations that were adopted for 2009 are the same as those that were in effect in 2008.
The commissioners also adopted as county policy the regulations of Pennsylvania’s new Right-to-Know Law, and appointed chief County Clerk Gayle Kershner as the county’s open records officer.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com
The reclassifications took place at a meeting on Thursday, where the county commissioners also approved a $101,000 licensing agreement for new software for the county assessment office, and voted to advertise for bids to repair the front porch of the Bradford County Manor.
Pay grades
At the meeting, the Bradford County Salary Board — whose members consist of the three county commissioners and county Treasurer Becky Clark — re-classified the assistant elections director and two clerks to a higher pay grade, which increases their salaries.
“Out of 700 workers (employed by the county), only three were re-classified (to a higher pay grade) because it was a tough budget,” said Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith, referring to the 2009 county budget that was adopted on Dec. 22 with a 4.4 percent increase in the county property tax rate.
Each year, county department heads put in requests to re-classify certain employees to higher pay grades, and it is up to the Salary Board to decide which ones to approve.
This week, the Salary Board increased the assistant elections director position from Grade 14 to Grade 16, and, as a result, Renee Smithkors, who holds the position, will see her annual salary increase from $19,911 to $21,421, said Bradford County Personnel Director Teresa Jones.
Due to upgrades in technology and the Help America Vote Act, and the increased number of registered voters in the county, the duties of the assistant elections director have increased, said county Elections Director Marie Zbyszinski. The assistant elections director needs to be able to perform many of the duties of the elections director, she said.
Zbyszinski had requested that the assistant elections director position be re-classified to an even higher pay grade, but the salary board would re-classify the position only up to Grade 16, Smith said.
The other positions that were re-classified were two part-time casual general clerks in the county Prothonotary’s Office, Smith said.
The clerk positions were re-classified from Grade 7 to Grade 10, bringing their hourly salaries from $7.59 to $8.78, Jones said.
The two clerks “were at the bottom of the wage scale,” and no other employees with similar duties were earning that wage, Smith said.
“So we brought them up to be equal to everybody else,” he said.
The commissioners also voted to seek bids to repair the front porch of the Bradford County Manor, which had been hit by a truck.
Software
The commissioners approved a software licensing agreement with Vision Appraisal Technology Inc. of Northborough, Mass., to provide an assessment and occupation data base for the Bradford County Assessment Office at a total cost of $101,000.
The expenditure for this software licensing agreement was included in the 2009 budget, Smith said.
“The software will replace the antiquated system that the county has been working on phasing out across the county,” Smith had said in his Dec. 2 “Chairman’s Report to the Taxpayers on the State of Bradford County.”
“The new (software) program will allow for many internal improvements in keeping track of assessments on an up-to-date mainstream system. This will also allow for online access for the public of records that citizens would normally have to travel to the courthouse to receive,” Smith said.
The commissioners also set the rates for using the 10 new, larger trailer sites at Hornbrook County Park, which are $20 per day, $100 per week and $250 per month. The electric rates for those 10 sites are $7 per day, $35 per week and $85 per month.
The commissioners chose to leave the rates for the other campsites in the county parks unchanged. The park regulations that were adopted for 2009 are the same as those that were in effect in 2008.
The commissioners also adopted as county policy the regulations of Pennsylvania’s new Right-to-Know Law, and appointed chief County Clerk Gayle Kershner as the county’s open records officer.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com
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