Two county employees are doing similar jobs, but one is being paid $6,000 more and Sanitation Department director Josh Roberts does not think that’s fair.

At the county Health and Welfare Committee meeting, Roberts told the committee he would like to see a pay increase for his clerical personnel employee, Tracy Myers, and that he had been trying for two years to make this happen. Myers has been working for the Sanitation Department for three years and her job duties have evolved since she was hired.

“She does the exact same thing that the Finance Department does in the county. They just hired a girl in at $30,000 on the payroll, and she is making $24,000,” said Roberts. “It bothers me. I mean it really does and it hits close to home and I don’t agree with that. My minimum proposal would be to bring her up to $30,000. This year I would like to see that done. I don’t feel that it is right that she has been here three years and is doing the exact same job they are doing and they are hiring in at $30,000 and we are paying her $24,000 and she has been here three years fully trained.”

“So I am assuming that you will try to work the budget up with that in it?” asked Commissioner Blaine Wilcher.

“Yes. For sure and that money will be in the fund balance. We will not be asking for an increase,” said Roberts.

Roberts said they do a lot of in-house work at the Sanitation Department and it saves them money by doing so. The in-house work comes with a lot of paperwork and PO requests and Myers plays a big role in that process. 

Said Wilcher, “I can’t predict what is going to happen in Budget and Finance, but I know in times past we have done things where we have been creative with getting people raises and stuff and we have moved money around.”