Iron County raises employee salaries

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — After a brief discussion between board members, the Iron County Board of Commissioners voted 8-2 to increase all county employees’ hourly rates by $1.25 at their regular meeting on Tuesday.

When the motion was put to a roll call vote, chairman Joseph Pinardi and commissioners Scott Erickson, Patrick Hanson, Anne McComas, Opal Roberts, John Sendra, Brandon Snyder and William Thomas voted yes. Tanner Hiller and Jamey Francis voted no. Larry Youngs and Thomas Thompson abstained from the vote, the former citing the fact that one of his family members is a county employee.

The Iron County Finance Committee previously recommended that the board increase the county employee wages at starting point of 4.5%. However, they concluded that a percentage increase would only widen the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid employees.

Instead, Pinardi suggested that they increase county employees’ hourly rates by $1.25 across the board. This represents an approximate $2,500 increase to every employee’s yearly salary.

The board said that these wage increases are intended to bring the county’s wages more in line with other municipalities to make it easier for them to attract and retain workers. Another contributing factor is the rising U.S. inflation rate.

Before going to a vote, Francis reminded the other commissioners that the county will have to pay these increased wages year after year. He also said that when Milwaukee County increased its employees’ compensation earlier this month, they only gave eligible workers a 2% pay increase.

Thompson responded that the hourly rates for Iron County employees are substantially lower than those of their counterparts in Milwaukee County, so he said that the situations are not comparable. He said that the choice was stark: either Iron County starts paying its employees more or it starts losing them.

Iron County Clerk Michael Saari said that he understood Francis’ reservations and if not for the funds that the county is receiving through the state’s carbon credit program, he would recommend that the commissioners to decline the wage increase.

Hiller expressed concern that the county has not yet received carbon credit program funds and ultimately joined Francis in opposing the wage increase.

Pinardi said that in the future, when the county stops receiving carbon credits, the county will have to bring county employee wages to its voters. He suggested that the county could eventually hold a referendum to see if area residents want them to continue providing the same services or cut some programs.

The board also approved a letter supporting regional internet service providers Norvado and Win Technologies’ grant application for broadband infrastructure development in Iron County.

Iron County Development Zone Coordinator Kelly Klein attended the meeting and explained that $1 billion in federal funds is being provided through this grant program, to be used for “middle mile” deployment. Klein said that “middle mile” refers to the connection between the broadband networks in different municipalities.

Klein said that the Win Technologies and Norvado plan to apply for another grant in late 2023 or early 2024 for “last-mile” deployment from the middle mile to homes and businesses.

Klein said that middle mile fiber project will cost $25 million, with Win Technologies and Norvado funding 30% and the grant covering the remaining 70%. He said that the county does not need to provide any matching funds and signing the letter of support will not prevent them from supporting other ISPs that want to deploy fiber optic cables in the future.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Hiller and fellow commissioners Jamey Francis and Roy Haegar were appointed to the Iron County Broadband Committee along with Kelly Peterson. Pinardi indicated that these appointments will help the committee apply for broadband infrastructure funding going forward.

The county board also approved a resolution drafted by the Iron County Comprehensive Planning/Land and Zoning Committee petitioning the governor, state legislators and other counties to repeal a law limiting the county’s ability to deny residential rental permits.

The county board also:

—Approved road use permits to Tyler Kettlewell, Jeff and Cindy Braun and Nathan Berg and Margarita Diaz-Berg.

—Recognized suicide as a national health problem in anticipation of National Suicide Prevention Week.