Monday August 3, 2015 11:18 AM
Village Council voted unanimously July 21 to approve an updated wage and salary structure that Village Manager Jim Lenner said will make Johnstown more competitive when it comes to hiring and retaining employees.
The ordinance goes into effect Aug. 20. It covers both salaried and hourly workers.
Finance Director Dana Steffan said the salaries and wages of most of the village’s 25 employees already fall within the new pay ranges. Those that don’t will be adjusted before Aug. 20.
The list of salaried employees covered under the new pay scale includes the finance director ($46,176 to $71,715); village planner ($45,000 to $68,250); and the human resources director, police chief and service director, whose salaries all will range from $52,790 to $94,152.
Pay scales for jobs paid by the hour range from a low of $12.50 to $15.12 for part-time accounts payable clerk and part-time dispatcher to a high of $21.50 to $27.03 for a police lieutenant.
The highest hourly wages listed in the ordinance are for police and service department employees.
A police sergeant’s hourly pay will range from $19.50 to $23.10. Full-time patrolmen will be paid $15.50 to $21.20 per hour and part-time patrolmen will earn between $13.50 and $17.32 an hour.
In the service department, the hourly wage for the chief wastewater operator will be between $20.05 and $29.63; the chief water operator will earn $20.05 to $29.63 per hour; utility operator class III will earn $18.29 to $27.02 per hour; utility operator class II will be paid $16.15 to $23.85 per hour; utility operator class I will earn between $14.17 and $20.93 an hour; and utility laborers will be paid between $13.13 and $17.96 an hour.
“The wage and salary-structure change is necessary to offer fair and competitive wages to our current and prospective employees,” Steffan said in an e-mail.
“The balancing of the wage structure, benefit plans and other expenditures within the limits of the approved budget is a complicated task that requires diligence and intelligent planning,” she said.
Cuts were made to employees’ pay in the 2014 budget, including $48,000 for police officer salaries and $42,000 in dispatcher salaries.
The issue of wages also was brought up last fall, when voters rejected a proposed charter amendment that would have allowed collective bargaining by village employees.
The last change to the pay structure was passed in 2013.
Debbie Gillum Wakefield 