EVERETT — Some Snohomish County employees facing a possible 5.7 percent pay cut next year believe that their leaders aren’t making the same sacrifices.
Two administrators with the Superior Court received raises this year after human resources staff reclassified their jobs to reflect a higher level of responsibility.
A union for juvenile probation and detention employees was so troubled by the situation that it took out newspaper ads last week.
“We would like to see (the pay raises) delayed until such time that other employees aren’t either getting laid off or have pay cuts from the furloughs,” said Brian O’Neill, a detention officer at the county’s Denney Juvenile Justice Center and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 1811.
The raises, which took effect Aug. 1, give two assistant administrators at the Superior Court a $400-per-month raise. That bumps them up to nearly $106,000 per year, up from about $101,000.
The union wants the raises halted until the county has a balanced budget and county employees have gone a year without pay cuts or furloughs. For O’Neill, the issue isn’t the salary itself, but a raise at a time when he and others are making less.
“It sours attitudes and people are less likely to act together as a team,” he said.
The official who requested the increase said the change was necessary to resolve a separate fairness issue: assistant administrators who were underpaid compared to other departments.
“This wasn’t anything that they asked for, this was something that I asked for,” Superior Court Administrator Bob Terwilliger said. “I came to the conclusion that here were multiple positions in the county that were clearly paid more and clearly didn’t have the same responsibility level.”
In March, AFSCME and other unions agreed to an emergency deal for 11 furlough days to help save the county millions of dollars while preventing layoffs. The deal was struck after it became apparent that falling revenues required cutting $6 million from the budget.
Terwilliger pointed out that the two assistant administrators who received raises also had to take furloughs this year. As with other county employees, the furloughs wiped out more than 4 percent of their paychecks.
Detention officers and sheriff’s deputies weren’t affected because furloughs were not practical given their around-the-clock duties. That group included juvenile detention officers at Denney.
Next year could be different. County Executive Aaron Reardon’s proposed 2010 budget calls for all employees to take 15 furlough days — the equivalent of a 5.7 percent pay cut. The deputies and corrections officers would have to take the same pay cut without getting the unpaid days off.
“People are highly upset about this pay cut,” O’Neill said.
The County Council is working on its own version of the budget, which could offer different solutions from the executive. Elected officials’ and judges’ salaries remain the same because they are set by a state commission.
Reardon, in a memo sent Wednesday to County Council Chairman Mike Cooper, said he shared the union’s concerns about fairness. His office actually turned down the same reclassification in early 2008.
In June of that year, however, the County Council adopted an emergency ordinance that prevented Reardon’s office from approving or denying such requests.
Now, they go through the human resources department in a purely administrative process. While Reardon oversees human resources, his staff can’t intervene. He called it an “unintended consequence” of the council’s action.
Early this year, Terwilliger resubmitted the request on behalf of the two assistant administrators and the human resources department approved it.
“If they had come back to me and said ‘I don’t think so,’ I’m done,” Terwilliger said.
Cooper, the council chairman, said that he hoped to discuss the issue with Reardon soon. He said he could understand the union’s frustration.
He also said he could see why Terwilliger wanted the change, but isn’t sure he would have asked for it in the current climate.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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