Housing board delays implementing pay scale
The Fayette County Housing Authority delayed approval of a new salary scale Friday after board member Beverly Beal voiced objections to altering job descriptions and adopting pay rates that didn’t consider seniority. Beal also said the authority should freeze more of the salaries paid to top-tier employees. The plan, prepared by Peter R. Johnson & Co., recommended redlining only three salaries in the authority’s administrative operation.
Noting that she in general supports boosting compensation for lower-paid workers, Beal said, “Some of the others, I can’t (support). I think they need talked about. I personally cannot vote for it.”
Beal said that if the authority plans to redline, or cap, salaries, it should include more of the top salaries than suggested by the Johnson study. She also voiced a dim view of the document and its $30,000 cost, adding that she has worked on authority budgets and could have come up with a better and fairer plan.
“I don’t know how you can change job descriptions from civil service,” said Beal, who added that the plan makes widespread changes in that regard.
Board Chairman Kenneth L. Johnson said the whole purpose of the salary comparability study was to ensure that authority employees are getting a fair wage on two fronts: for what others do in comparable jobs outside the authority and for what a particular employee does for the authority.
Johnson said that if the study pinpoints that a particular job is worth $20,000, it doesn’t really matter if one person has been doing that job for many years and a more recent hire has done it for only a few.
“If somebody comes in and wants to do that job, they deserve that money,” said Johnson. He added that in the business world, the job, and not the person doing it, is usually the chief barometer of a pay rate.
Johnson said the authority was trying to make sure that its employees are being treated fairly in terms of the work that each of them does. “I understand it … I know exactly where we’re going with this, and I think it’s a good thing,” said Johnson.
Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless said, “The job has a value. You don’t want to overpay or underpay it.”
Dantzler said that while he saw Beal’s point regarding the changes of job description, it’s important to note that jobs do evolve over time, particularly in this era of technology and computers.
So, Dantzler said it makes sense to have a periodic adjustment of job descriptions, since that’s the only way to ensure that an employee is being compensated for any additional duties that he or she has taken on.
Because of Beal’s concerns, the board agreed to table the matter until a future meeting. Dantzler made a motion to that effect.
Also at Friday’s meeting:
– The board approved a contract with Connellsville to provide extra police services in Gibson Terrace for $20 an hour, not to exceed $25,000. Department head Dave Huston said the deal was patterned after similar contracts signed with Masontown and Brownsville boroughs, and state police at Uniontown.
“The big problem is you need somebody there with arresting powers,” said Huston. “We have a lot of problems with outsiders down there.” He said that Gibson Terrace has 159 children under age 17, and the contract is geared toward a “community policing” concept that establishes ties to the community.
Harkless said that since the authority’s Drug Elimination Grant funds the contract, there might only be enough dollars to fund it through next spring when that grant money runs out.
– Harkless announced that he’s received word that the authority will get federal approval for its plan to demolish 255 housing units. He said the director of the Special Applications Center for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would sign the approval Friday. The authority should get official notice within two weeks, Harkless said.
However, the authority is still waiting for the chance to apply for competitive housing demolition funds. Harkless said that Notice of Funds Availability, or NOFA, hasn’t come out yet. Winning some of that money would allow the authority to accelerate its demolition timetable.
– The board held an executive session to discuss potential litigation. Afterward, Johnson said the matter concerned 1993 work done to the electrical system of Belle Vernon Apartments. “We’ve got to look into it, to make sure that the work was done or wasn’t done according to specs,” said Johnson.
Harkless said that the authority recently discovered that the main breaker box fuses at that housing complex were of much higher amperage than acceptable. He said the authority would likely spend $3,000 to replace several 5-pound fuses, which are about the size of a large coffee can.
Harkless said the cost would include work related to the need to replace the fuse housing, which is no longer manufactured.