By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After hearing the wage study at the last Board of County Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Ron Sellers agrees with his colleagues that an adjustment is necessary.
"We can't go out and hire, let's say, a surveyor, that had 10 years experience from another surveying and put him in at a higher rate than a ten-year employee that's doing a quality job with the county," Sellers said. "We need to make these positions equitable, so that new people coming in to the staff are at the correct position."
Sellers knows that figuring out how to pay for it is something the commissioners will have to hash out in open session, but they're asking for more information first.
"We've asked the county administrator to give us some proposals of how these wage increases will effect, not only our cash carryover that we have now, which is substantial, but would effect future budgets. Personally, I would not like to use a lot of the ARPA money for these increases."
Sellers sees a better long-term use for those one-time dollars.
"I think the ARPA money should be dedicated to things that are going to make a lasting change in our county," Sellers said. "One of my strong points there, and I think there's some support for this, is things that have to do with housing conditions, or potential new construction of housing districts. I think we could do a better job of implementing our housing stock."
The goal is for commissioners to deal with the so-called compression adjustment by the end of January.