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Currently the engineer's salary is paid
through the county's general budget.
The state program pays half of the
engineer's salary out of the county's highway fund. The highway fund
has both federal and state motor fuel tax dollars in it.
Currently Logan County has a pool
built up in the MFT fund. Some of those funds are earmarked for the
Fifth Street Road development that is to be done when other federal
transportation funds get added to it.
One of the stipulations to adopt the
state program is that the engineer be paid a minimum of 95 percent
of the state-set engineer's salary recommendation. The
recommendation is based on the size of the county and the number of
miles of county roadway and bridges that the engineer oversees.
Tom Hickman's current salary is
$65,500. To participate in the program he would need to be paid
$79,000. This would raise his salary $13,500 this year.
Admittedly, Hickman said, he would
like to see the raise, but his primary interest in the board
adopting the program is that it would free up $26,000 from the
county budget. He would be able to do some equipment upgrades and
replacements that are reaching critical status and know that he can
keep county roads in good condition. Ordinarily he keeps equipment
up with his yearly budget, but at the request of the board he has
budgeted zero dollars for the highway department for the last two
years.
Two county board members, George
Mitchell and Dick Logan, said they could not support participation
in the state option. It is unreasonable with all the things going on
and the need for belt-tightening, Mitchell said.
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Logan agreed, particularly because
other county employees received only 3 percent salary increases this
year. Another factor of
concern raised is that participating in the program uses funds set
aside for roads. In 10 years' time this would add up to nearly
$400,000 taken out of county road funds.
Based on the current figures the
actual total difference to the county in 10 years' time, whether
from the general budget or the highway fund, would be the difference
of the salary increase, $135,000.
John Stewart favored taking the
state option. As far as the increase in salary goes, he sees that
Hickman works beyond his job description. He pointed out that
Hickman has been overseeing the geographic information system
development, and this has saved the county money.
Hickman pointed out that it is a
three-year contract with the state to be renewable annually and that
it also has a clause that either party can break the contract with
30 days' notice.
The engineer's position is a
six-year appointment
made by the board. Hickman is up for reappointment Aug. 17.
A straw vote showed eight for and
four against adopting the program.
[Jan
Youngquist] |
