Written by David Andreatta
When Monroe County legislators meet today to adopt a 2012 budget, they will consider a spending plan with some $750,000 in salary increases for the county’s highest-paid employees, managers and other professionals, some of whom were appointed to their posts.
Absent from the $1.1 billion spending plan are raises for the bulk of unionized county workers, about 2,700 employees, whose labor contracts will have expired three years ago come Dec. 31.
The raises are tied to legislation passed unanimously by the legislature in 2009 that guaranteed the pay increases and authorized the county to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Sheriff’s Office workers.
Come the start of the new fiscal year next month, the net effect of that legislation will be that some 370 county managers and professionals — whose pay schedule currently ranges from $57,127 to $193,195 — will have received cumulative raises of at least 10.4 percent over three years. The increases could amount to upward of 17 percent over the same period for managers who were elevated one or more steps annually on their salary schedule.
The raises have widened the rift between the administration of County Executive Maggie Brooks and labor leaders, for whose members the salary schedule has remained stagnant at 2008 levels, in part because they have rebuffed offers for raises tied to higher health care premiums.
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