MANSFIELD — Richland County Juvenile Court Judge Steve McKinley and his administrator, Brian Bumpus, asked county commissioners for financial help on Tuesday.
They left empty-handed, other than homework assignments, after the three-member board requested more information before acting on a pair of requests.
The larger request was money to increase pay for deputy clerks and detention center workers, increases that would carry a price tag of $53,606 for the remainder of 2022.
Bumpus said turnover among the 29 employees in the two areas was trending between 75 and 80 percent annually since the start of the year, which he attributed to a starting wage of $14 per hour.
“They literally can go to McDonald’s and make that kind of money,” Bumpus said, adding that increasing the starting wage to $15 per hour would also trigger increases for longer-term employees in those areas.
“If the water rises, all the boats in the harbor go up,” he said about the non-union positions.
He told commissioners the deputy clerks are the lowest-paid among agencies in the county and that private locations such as Abraxas and the Mohican Youth Academy are paying “substantially” more than the court for its youth specialists in detention services.
Commissioners, however, expressed frustration that court leaders didn’t address the issue through the $5 million budget they approved for 2022 for the court and its detention system — about $40,000 less than requested.
Instead, the court approved largely 3-percent increases across the board, according to Bumpus.
Commissioners asked why Bumpus didn’t follow their advice to provide lump-sum bonuses to higher-paid employees and allocate more funds to boost the lower-paid workers.
“You and I spoke at length about this and I said that is what our office did,” Vero told Bumpus. “People at the high end of the spectrum got lump-sum payments. We talked about compensation systems and appropriately paying people.
“I know we spoke at length about this because you were concerned that a $40,000 reduction in a request was going to impact juvenile court. So we spoke at length. Did juvenile court give out any lump sums?” Vero asked.
“No,” Bumpus said.
Vero said, “But again, just so we’re clear after the many lengthy discussions that our office had with you, you did nothing of what we may have recommended in terms of trying to competitively pay people. So no matter where they are in the scale, you just said, ‘Here’s 3 percent.'”
“Correct,” Bumpus said.
Commissioner Darrell Banks also expressed his displeasure.
“I’m disappointed. Tony talked to you and we’ve talked to other departments and many of them did that (lump-sum payments),” Banks said.
McKinley said, “What we’re trying to achieve is parity with the other clerks that are in this county in particular. Our clerks are paid well below what others are.”
At the end of the discussion, commissioners told the judge and the administrator to bring back information on what each of the 29 positions paid last year, what they are being paid this year and what they would be paid with the proposed increases.
“So before we can make any decision, we are gonna need to see how the raises were distributed in court and detention for 2021 into 2022. In order to appropriately assess where we go from here, we’ll need to see that,” Vero said.
The other court request on Tuesday was $37,478 for a new HVAC system for the 411 S. Diamond St. facility. The current failing system was installed in 1996, according to Bumpus.
Commissioners, who asked Bumpus how court officials didn’t know the system was nearing the end of its usage at 25 years old, asked the administrator to fund the work from his current budget.
“Like we did with some of the other (department) requests, we say go ahead and pay for it. We want you to find it within your budget. But if you are short, we’ll talk about it,” Banks said.
Vero said, “We know this is something we need to do. So we’re not saying we don’t. (But) in a $5 million budget, there should be $40,000 somewhere. Maybe there isn’t.”
In the future, Commissioner Cliff Mears will work to better coordinate the Juvenile Court with the county’s maintenance department to keep track of needed future capital projects.
