Kane Co. maintenance staff ticked about raises for managers

When Kane County maintenance worker Steve Small appeared in front of the county board this week it was not only to voice his frustration, but put a face on a group of 12 employees who believe they've been slapped in the face.

Small and his colleagues believe they've received crumbs in comparison to a salary bonanza given to three of their managers. But a Kane County official who oversees both Small and the managers said pay raises recently handed out reflect not just tight financial times, but increased responsibilities for management.

Small told the county board he and his colleagues agreed to a one-time $350 bonus instead of a raise last year in recognition of the county's tight financial times. The maintenance workers had not received as much as a cost of living increase since 2007. Then they saw the salaries of their managers posted on the county Web site.

"We were shocked to find out that almost as soon as we had reached an agreement, and after the loss of a laid-off employee, building management gave itself huge raises," Small said.

By huge, Small referenced a raise of 18 percent for one person, 12 percent for another person and 9 percent for a third person. Given that, Small and his colleagues felt like the 3 percent raise they asked for wasn't out of line. Instead, they received a 1 percent raise.

Carla Williams represented Small and his co-workers during the negotiations as their American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union representative. She said the real kicker for the workers was watching their colleague get laid-off and then management receive raises seemingly out of the savings of the laid-off worker's salary.

"They tried to say back to us that, 'Hey, you got an increase, and we got an increase,' " Williams said. "But there's no comparison. What kind of increases would they have gotten if they'd laid-off three of our staff? Our members feel like they've been slapped in the face."

Williams said the raises the three managers received will represent an annual cost increase to the county of more than $22,000. Meanwhile, a 3 percent raise for the 12 maintenance workers would be approximately $12,300.

Tim Harbaugh oversees both the managers and the maintenance workers for the county. He said the raises of up to 18 percent for the three managers are both accurate and deserved. The raises came as a fourth manager retired and was not replaced. That left the remaining managers (two building engineers and one department manager) with "significantly larger workloads," Harbaugh said. Overall, the budget Harbaugh oversees is down more than 10 percent, including a more than 13 percent reduction in management salaries. That's actually more of a cut than the AFSCME maintenance workers have contributed to solving the budget problems, resulting in the need to layoff the one employee, Harbaugh said.