Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
HURLEY — The Iron County Board of Supervisors’ Finance Committee approved reclassifying Sarah Eder from a level 2 to a level 3 social worker Thursday.
Iron County Human Services Director Carolyn Kolson-Janov said Eder has been with the county for five years — although she had worked in the county as an AmeriCorps and contract worker prior to joining the county full-time — and works with the child protective services and child welfare units.
There are four levels of social workers, Kolson-Janov said, with four being the highest and applicable to those who attain master degrees and are eligible for supervisory roles.
Kolson-Janov recommended the elevation as a reflection of Eder’s work and because she is working on completing her master’s degree and will soon be able to take on additional responsibilities.
“The bottom line is, I think the county has to look at retaining the staff they have,” Kolson-Janov said, adding the directors in the northern counties were emphasizing staff retention and motivation. “For the primary people in the agency, I have a lot of money tied up in training, and it’s unbelievable what they have to go through and what they have to know. I don’t want to lose what we already invested in this person,” she said.
The higher designation means more independent work at a higher level, Kolson-Janov said, adding the elevation would mean slightly more than a $2 an hour increase in salary.
In other action:
—The committee officially set the wage for the county’s new sanitarian at $18.64 an hour, 80 percent of the $23.29 per hour designated as the rate for a grade 11 employee, which county clerk Michael Saari said was the designation Health Officer Zona Wick felt was appropriate for the position. According to information at the meeting, the salary will increase by 5 percent each year until reaching the full $23.29 per hour.
—The committee approved a motion to set the amount which four of the county’s road deputies contribute to retirement at 6.8 percent. The change was necessary to get the county back into compliance with Wisconsin’s Act 10, which Saari explained requires deputies hired after July 1, 2011, to contribute the same amount to the retirement fund as other county workers.
Those hired before the July 1 deadline don’t have to contribute anything, however Saari said in the last contract the deputies’ union agreed to contribute 3.4 percent to the retirement accounts. Saari said the last four hired slipped through the cracks and hadn’t been paying the rate they should have. He said that 6.8 percentage was set by the state and could change each year.
—The committee discussed the possibility of creating a new level for the county’s office managers — establishing a classification system of levels, similar to those used for social workers — however, if the county decides to create the new classification, any changes to the pay level would be handled during contract negotiations this fall, according to Saari.
—Saari updated the board on the process of transferring the deed to a property on Richardson Street in Mercer to the Mercer Sanitary District. The county had previously agreed to give the property, located next to the pump house, to the district in the 1990s, however Saari said the deed was never recorded so the property hadn’t officially transferred to the district.
