Nearly 160 nonunion Butler County employees will not get their annual pay raise next year.
The Butler County Salary Board- which includes all three county commissioners and County Controller Ben Holland- voted against the 3 percent pay increase Wednesday. Holland and Commissioner Jim Eckstein dissented.
Board Chairman Commissioner Bill McCarrier said almost all of the county’s union employees received raises of 3 percent or more from an arbitrator and believed it was not fair to penalize nonunion employees for not being in a union.
“These people work side-by-side,” McCarrier said.
Eckstein said pay raises should be revenue neutral.
“I also don’t think we (the current board) should make this decision today out of respect for the new board,” Eckstein said. ”
Newly-elected Leslie Osche, Kim Geyer and Kevin Boozel will officially be sworn in Jan. 4. They could re-open to the 2016 budget.
Holland said he couldn’t support the raise because the county has an unbalanced budget.
“We operated with an unbalanced budget in 2015 and there are many problems with the 2016 budget,” Holland said. “I can’t support it. It’s nothing personal.”
Commissioner Dale Pinkerton blasted Eckstein and Holland for not awarding the raises.
“It’s wrong what these two are trying to do to our non-union people,” Pinkerton said.
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