Newspaper Page Text
Barrow Journal
www.BarrowJournal.com •r Read all over...
Wednesday, February 4,2009
Vol. 1 No. 15 22 PAGES 3 SECTIONS A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. WINDER, BARROW COUNTY GEORGIA 30680 250COPY
— Inside —
Area news:
•Work continues on
new shopping center
page 3A
•State court to hear
hospital appeal
page 2A
•Saunders to retire in
2010
page 7A
Opinions:
•Working man
ignored in tough times
page 4A
•Watch out for that
tax bill
page 4A
•Who do we want to
be
page 6A
•Opinions vary on
new president
page 6A
Sports:
•WBHS, AHS basket
ball teams clash again
page 1B
•Mat Wildcats, Mat
Bulldoggs set for area
page 1B
•AHS swimmers per
form well at meet
page 1B
Also Inside:
•Church News
page 3C
• Helen Person col
umn
page 6A
•Public Safety
pages 6-7B
•Obituaries
pages 4-5C
To subscribe,
call today:
770-867-NEWS
(6397).
The Barrow
Journal is
delivered
every
Thursday.
Keith Lee resigns
BY SUSAN NORMAN
Barrow County’s chief admin
istrator abruptly resigned Monday
after questions were raised about his
handling of pay scales for county
employees over the past three years.
Keith Lee, who has served as chief
of operations since April 2004, sub
mitted his resignation letter to Barrow
County Board of Commissioners
Chairman Danny Yearwood at 8 a.m.
Monday. His last day at work will be
Feb. 13.
Lee didn’t explain his decision in
the letter, or to Yearwood. He did not
respond to a request for an interview.
“He did say to me this morning that
‘I might have made some mistakes
while here,”’ Yearwood said. “I told
him the only people that don’t make
mistakes are the people who don’t do
anything.”
Lee’s resignation came just six
days after the county received a let
ter from a 2005 consultant stating his
company never advised the county’s
top administrators to raise employee
salaries to the midpoint of their salary
ranges after just one year of service,
or within one year of the adoption of
its new pay scales (see other story.)
The letter has raised serious ques
tions about the way county officials
implemented the pay study - not only
because of large widespread staff
raises that happened within a year
of the study, but also because of the
much larger raises that Lee and assis
tant county administrator Michael
Fisher received after the study. Lee
and Fischer were the two county
officials with the primary responsibil
ity for overseeing the 2005 “Archer
Study” of Barrow County salaraies.
According to Barrow records
obtained from an open records
request, in the three years after the
implementation of the pay study,
Lee’s salary jumped by $30,125. He
earned $88,722 in 2005. Last year, he
earned $118,848, the records show.
Fischer’s salary during the same
LEE
period rose by more than $29,000.
Fischer was hired Feb. 28, 2005, at a
salary of $60,813. On his first anni
versary, four months after the Archer
study was implemented, he received a
$23,268 raise to a salary of $84,082.
In 2008, his salary was raised to
$90,158, according to data from the
Barrow County Human Resources
Department.
ASSESSING BLAME
At this point, Yearwood said he
plans to talk personally with Earnesl
R. Archer, president of The Archei
Group firm that did the pay study
before deciding where to assign
blame.
He said surrounding counties alsc
have recently implemented Archei
pay scales, but their employees work
toward their salary “midpoints” ovei
a period of years. Only Barrow has
allowed employees to go from a start
ing salary to the midpoint salary in a
single year, Yearwood said.
Yearwood said he doesn’t know
if Barrow’s officials simply made
a mistake, or took advantage of the
study.
“We had people getting $30,00C
raises,” he said. “I will say I don’t
think Archer was ever drawn up tc
operate that way.”
continued on page 3A
Payroll jumps 42% since 2005
County officials accelerated plan for quicker raises
BY SUSAN NORMAN
A letter from a salary consult
ing firm sent to local lead
ers last week is sending
shockwaves through the top levels of
Barrow County’s government. The
letter indicates that county employees
have received larger raises at a faster
pace over the past three years than the
study intended.
The financial impact of those pay
increases on county finances is so
large that the issue appears to be what
spurred this week’s resignation of
Barrow County’s chief administrator,
Keith Lee (see related story. )
The author of the 2005 Barrow
County government pay study said in
a Jan. 27 letter that he never advised
county officials to raise employee
salaries to the middle of their posi
tions’ pay ranges after only one year
of service, or in the year immedi
ately following implementation of
his study.
But that happened throughout the
county after the Barrow County Board
of Commissioners in October 2005
adopted The Archer Group compen
sation study with new pay ranges
for each job, says Human Resources
Director Norma Jean Brown.
Brown, who surprisingly had little
to do with the Archer study and its
implementation, said raises of up to
$10,000 in a single year — and often
after only one year of service — have
been common.
In contrast, when Jackson County
implemented its Archer pay scales in
July 2007, all employees were imme
diately brought to their pay-ranges’
minimum salaries and then given
one percent increases for each year
of service up to a maximum raise
of 10 percent, according to informa
tion requested from Barrow’s Human
Resources Department.
• View a complete list of 2008
Barrow County Government
salaries.
— See page 5A
Brown said she was not a part of
the decision to hire the Archer Group
to analyze the county’s pay scales and
staffing levels.
She said Lee and assistant county
administrator Michael Fischer over
saw the project.
“I was not consulted or involved
in analyzing the salary ranges in the
study,” she said in a response to ques
tions from this newspaper. “I was
given instructions as to how it was
supposed to be handled.
Barrow County Board of
Commissioners Chairman Danny
Yearwood said this week that the
county plans to have a new pay study
done and if that research shows that
existing salaries are too high, those
could be cut. The county is fac
ing a large budget deficit this year
due to the economic downturn, but
Yearwood said next year’s deficit
would be even larger due to the pro
jected loss of state funds and the start
of additional county debt payments.
$6.2 MILLION
PRICE TAG
Barrow County’s aggressive imple
mentation of the study’s recommend
ed “midpoint” salaries for many of its
475 employees has had a significant
financial impact over the past three
years.
According to county records for
2006-2008, the local government
last year spent 41.9 percent more on
salaries than it did in 2005, the year
before most of the $71,000 “Archer
Study” raises went into effect.
In 2005, employee payroll totaled
$14.7 million. In 2008, it was $20.9
million. That $6.2 million increase
does not include comparable spikes
in the county’s contributions for
Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes
or retirement benefits.
The increase does reflect the hiring
of additional staff. Six months after
the BOC adopted the pay study, a
second Archer study - on staffing and
efficiency levels - recommended the
creation of 32 new positions.
That number represents more than
a third of the 85 positions created
between Jan. 1, 2006 and Jan. 29,
2009.
ARCHER’S
STUDY
The Archer Group’s compensation
study created pay grades and salary
ranges for each position in the county
government. The gaps between the
minimum and midpoint salaries for
each position typically were $6,000
to 10,000.
The company recommended that
all employees making less than the
minimum salaries be given immedi
ate raises and suggested that salaries
progress toward their midpoints when
“economically feasible.”
In his letter last week, Earnest
R. Archer, president of The Archer
Group of Rock Hill, S.C., said the
midpoint for each pay range “rep
resents a market based competitive
figure... which will be necessary to
retain a fully experienced and capable
employee whose performance is con
sistently meeting Barrow County’s
expectations.” He wrote while it
would be good to make every sal
ary competitive, “our study did not
recommend that every employee be
brought up to the midpoint of his or
her assigned pay range.”
continued on page 3A
Bethlehem officials
prepare ‘09 budget
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
Town of Bethlehem council members have pro
posed an operating expense of approximately
$300,000 for the new year.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be
held Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. with the council then consider
ing official adoption of the budget March 2.
The $288,900 proposed amount for 2009 is a slight
increase from $268,710 that was spent in 2008. The
highest amounts budgeted for 2009 include capital
outlay (roads SPLOST) ($40,000), garbage collec
tion ($38,000), road maintenance ($30,000), salary
($28,000) and overall capital outlay ($30,000).
continued on page 3A
Unemployment up to 8.7%
Barrow County’s unem
ployment rate hit 8.7 percent
in December, up from 7.8
percent in November and
nearly double the December
2007 rate of 4.5 percent.
Barrow’s rate was above
that of the state’s rate of 7.8
percent in December.
Labor force estimates
show that Barrow had
2,951 people unemployed
in December. Barrow’s rate
was among the highest in the
Northeast Georgia area.
Unemployment Rates
December 2008
State
7.8%
Barrow County
8.7%
Jackson County
8.1%
Gwinnett County
6.9%
Walton County
8.5%
Oconee County
4.7%
Clarke County
6.3%
Madison County
6.7%
Banks County
5.8%
Auburn set
to meet
Thursday
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
The Auburn City Council is
scheduled to meet Thursday at 7
p.m. for its regular monthly meet
ing.
The council will hear staff reports
from the police department, public
works, city clerk, city planner and
other administration officials.
Public comments will be allowed
on agenda items. The council will
then vote on recommendations by
the planning and zoning board.
A decision will also be made
on the name of the old Auburn
Library.
A vote will also be taken on the
Telecom Right of Way ordinance
after it is presented by city clerk
Rafael Avalos.
Citizen comments will then close
out the February meeting.
Auburn DDA
plans for future
BY CHRIS BRIDGES
The newly formed Auburn
Downtown Development Authority
continues organizing for future
growth within the city.
City planner Larry Lucas pre
sented a conceptual plan for a
new restaurant and retail building
during the group’s meeting last
Wednesday. Lucas said it has been
discussed that this building may be
the first to be constructed entirely
to the vision of Auburn’s down
town overlay district.
continued on page 3A
Through
the lense
BACKYARD VIEW
See staff photographer
Jessica Brown’s photo essay
in today’s Community sec
tion on page 1C.
