Thursday, October 17, 2013
 
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New position decided and expected to aid county

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[October 17, 2013]  After countless meetings on how to meet a new state mandate, the issue may have been resolved during the Logan County Board's voting session on Wednesday. But, what came with it was a surprise to many.

The focus of the evening was to pass a budget for the coming fiscal year that begins Dec 1.

Finance chairman Chuck Ruben introduced items that needed to be decided before voting on the budget.

Almost a year ago, the county learned that the state of Illinois would be attaching a new requirement to the public transportation program.

The county had just launched a public transportation program five months earlier, in July 2012, after four years of preparing and being told it would not cost the county anything. Federal grant money would be used to operate the program, shared by Logan and Mason counties. Community Action agreed to roll this into its transportation programs and manage it.

All was going well with the program, and it was continuing to expand its services.

Then the county received notice that a project compliance and oversight management officer, or PCOM position, would need to be in place by Jan. 1, 2014. The PCOM was a new requirement passed down by the state to oversee the expenditures aspect of the program. The state would pay 80 percent of the costs for hours worked and benefits.

County board administrative secretary Pamela Meagher was asked if she would be interested, and she has been attending seminars and classes on this position all year.

Meagher's current duties include secretarial work for the county board and insurance administration, among other tasks that she is given by board members. This year she and other department heads in the courthouse also helped prepare the county's budget, a huge undertaking that is normally hired out.

The PCOM position would be most demanding during its first year of setup. It was unknown just how much time would be required, but for Meagher to take the position would require a redistribution of the workload in the board office.

Until Wednesday evening, it was being considered to move the county's zoning officer, Will D'Andrea, to the courthouse and give him some of the board office duties, plus expand his job description to do some county management and administration.

What finally evolved Wednesday evening after more discussion, led by Kevin Bateman, was rather than hire a part-time secretarial assistant for the county board office, add a full-time position with specific desired skills, complementary to what Meagher can do and what the board has identified as unmet needs.

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"We need to attract a good-quality person that can handle the growth in the years to come," Bateman said.

The board voted on the portion of the motion to hire Meagher as PCOM and county board office manager/assistant at a salary of $32,000 with benefits, and a raise the same as other officeholders. She would continue working in areas of her specialties for the county board and cover some of the office hours to provide consistency for the office. This passed 8-1 with Terry Carlton the lone "no."

The portion to hire a part-time employee was amended to make it a full-time employee for the county board office at 35 hours per week at a salary of $22,500, plus provide raises and benefits that are afforded to other county employees. Ruben said the insurance would be approximately $6,000 a year, and retirement benefits figure at 7.5 percent of the salary. This would add about $8,000 a year more in costs for the new position. This passed 7-2 with Gene Rohlfs and Ruben voting "no."

The above combined motion and amendment for new positions and salaries was then voted on and passed unanimously.

With those positions and duties decided, Bateman pointed out that there would be no need to bring D'Andrea to the courthouse or give him additional duties.

"The county's needs at this time are taken care of by the prior motion on positions and duties," Bateman said.

Rohlfs agreed with Bateman that with the new position that is being added, the county's needs would be met, but he voiced his and several others' concerns. "I do want to keep Will and keep him working for the county," Rohlfs said.

Ruben pointed out that the salary increase with the proposed expanded position was not much over what D'Andrea is already getting. D'Andrea was just wanting to do the bidding of the county by taking on the extra duties that were being discussed. Ruben was pretty sure D'Andrea would be OK with the decisions that the board had just made.

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