ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

In July, Seward County commissioners voted to approve a pay scale adjustment for the treasurer’s office setting minimum pay at $19 an hour, with some making as much as $30 an hour.

Treasurer Mary Rose and Deputy Treasurer Cassandra Martinez Ware would make between $31 and $42 an hour on the scale.

Aug. 3, commissioners voted to rescind that adjustment, and Rose and Martinez Ware addressed that issue with the board at the county’s recent budget work session. However, those concerns, according to Martinez Ware, fell on deaf ears, while other departments were respectfully considered.

Martinez addressed those actions during the commission’s most recent meeting Aug. 17 in the citizens comments portion of the meeting.

“I’m speaking to respectfully address the recent decision to rescind the wage increase that happened Aug. 3 that was previously approved for employees in our office on July 20,” she said. “When the board originally approved these increases, they were to come out of the treasurer’s fund, which by statute the commission has no control over.”

Martinez Ware said with the new wages formally approved, Rose followed the correct procedure to make sure they went into effect as she submitted employee status changes following the July 20 meeting to Human Resources Director Angela Johnston.

This, Martinez Ware said, created a software ticket to ensure money for the increases came from the treasurer’s fund, adding Rose likewise notified payroll, making sure the figures were reflected in that fund alone.

Part of the reason commissioners voted to rescind the adjustments was because many claimed they did not have ample time to research the topic. Martinez Ware, though, said board members were given plenty of time to do that research.

“Each of you commissioners were e-mailed with the information on July 15 and was contacted by phone Friday, July 17, individually by Mary Rose,” she said. “At that time, four out of five commissioners indicated the information presented was very black and white and self-explanatory and needed no further information with ample opportunity to ask for explanation, request additional information or raise concerns before the wages were approved  and implemented. Each commissioner had the opportunity to review the information beforehand, and the increases were subsequently approved and put into effect.”

Martinez Ware called the decision to reverse the wage adjustment very disconcerting and disappointing.

“Employees working second jobs officially gave their two weeks notice,” she said. “The consequences of this decision also extend far beyond numbers on the payroll scale. Some of our employees relied on those approved increases, making significant financial and detrimental decisions. Some chose to leave their second job, which cannot be undone now. After being formally notified of the increase and actually beginning to receive that wage, they reasonably believed they could rely on the income.”

Martinez Ware said employees did not make these decisions based on rumors, but simply because of the action commissioners took to put the adjustment into effect.

“Our girls have done all they can to cope, dry our eyes and put one step in front of the other and still come to work based on the decision you did not take into consideration,” she said. “To serve the residents of our county accurately, professionally and efficiently, those life altering decisions cannot necessarily be done simply because the board later chooses to reverse an action it had already approved and implemented.”

Martinez Ware then pointed to another department that also received a wage increase during the July 20 meeting, but that adjustment was not rescinded.

“In a decade of working for the county, never have I heard of such an unethical decision to do so by rescinding a wage done by commission,” she said. “I must raise questions regarding consistency and equal treatment.”

Martinez Ware said another significant factor commissioners chose to reverse the adjustment was numbers presented by Johnston at the Aug. 3 meeting for only the treasurer’s office.

“We find it very inaccurate and false,” Martinez Ware said. “The treasurer was not notified her office wages would be discussed at that meeting, not given a chance to review the numbers presented by HR or to defend her department. We believe in having a working relationship, and those numbers could’ve been worked on together as a team.”

Martinez Ware said starting pay for the treasurer’s office is lower than that for other departments, and the adjustment was simply to make wages in the treasurer’s office competitive with those departments.

“The positions in our department require significant knowledge, responsibility, accountability and attention to detail,” she said. “The wage adjustments recognize the duties they perform as well as the importance of retaining experienced and knowledgeable employees. We have a very tenured department.”

Martinez Ware, though, added the decision to rescind the adjustment goes beyond competitive wages.

“You have made hiring very difficult because we can’t tell them officially what our starting wages are as we do interviews,” she said. “They apply to those knowing the starting wage had been increased.”

Martinez Ware then addressed happened at the Friday, Aug. 14, budget work session, where she said commissioners had the perfect opportunity to bring their grievances to  she and Rose.

“We appeared in front of all five members, and the treasurer asked you more than once if you had any further questions,” Martinez Ware said. “Again that day, a department head came to you during the budget hearing and notified you she had hired a new person at $17 an hour. You didn’t blink an eye even after the administrator had stated she believed the starting pay for that position was $15 an hour.”

Martinez Ware said this led her and Rose to believe that employees did not get a pay increase.

“You have the floor, and you have the audience,” she said. “You have the power to make your point. Your silence on Friday spoke volumes to us as a department.”

Martinez Ware then talked about the commission’s May 14 meeting in which Rose was taken off the agenda by Chairman Steve Helm when a question of the county’s Revenue Neutral Rate was on the agenda.

“I wonder if this was simply because the public would find out the county treasurer worked 222 hours in 22 days to get your RNR fixed,” Martinez Ware said. “You wanted free labor, yet you opted to pay other salaried departments during the fire in February, but not your county treasurer for RNR transactions.”

Martinez Ware respectfully asked the commission to consider the decision to rescind the wage increases and honor the previously approved compensation.

“This department is worth defending,” she said. “Retracting these wages after they were implemented is unethical and appears to be a direct retaliation against our department alone.”

Martinez said she felt the treasurer’s office was singled out by the commission.

“This is simply a case in point when your actions speak louder than their words,” she said. “What occurred is wrong, unethical, and you as commissioners know it. I urge the board to correct this action immediately by restoring our compensation, as you have never done this to another department in this county.”