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Elections workers get bump in salaries

WARREN — Trumbull County Board of Elections employees received salary increases of 7.19 to 30.5 percent with the board chairman saying workers were paid “woefully low,” and this put them in line with the rest of the county’s salary schedule.

Until the increases, seven of the board’s 11 full-time employees made between $25,617 and $31,016 in annual salary. Even with the additional pay, four of them will still receive no more than $31,051 in yearly pay.

“It’s a wage adjustment based on Trumbull County’s employment salary schedule,” board Chairman Mark Alberini said. “It’s a correction. I don’t see it as raises. We looked at job descriptions, education, experience and specialization. We’re correcting the problem.”

The increases will allow the board to “be more competitive with salaries and retain and hire good employees,” he said. “It allows us to be fair to our employees. The hourly wages were adjusted and corrected in accordance with the current Trumbull County wage schedule.”

Ten of the 11 employees received raises, and one who received a 14.4 percent raise from $26,279 to $30,063 quit in the past few days for a better paying job, Alberini said.

Overall, the increases will cost $51,042 this year.

Clerks at the Mahoning County Board of Elections receive $41,654 annually in salary to start. After 10 years on the job, the salary increases by $1,456 and then by about $83 for each year an employee is there starting in year 11. Also, the Mahoning director and deputy director are each paid $81,200.

As of the November general election, Mahoning County had 163,339 registered voters compared with 136,362 voters in Trumbull.

In Trumbull County, Director Stephanie Penrose and Deputy Director Edrea Mientkiewicz saw their annual salaries increase 7.19 percent from $59,262 to $63,952. The salaries are about 21 percent lower in Trumbull than in Mahoning for the two top jobs at the boards of elections.

Only Joanne Hulvalchick, administrative assistant, and Annie Renn, an election tabulator, are now being paid more than the $41,654 annually in salary that clerks at the Mahoning board of elections receive to start.

Hulvalchick’s salary increased 7.65 percent from $43,619 to $46,957 while Renn’s went up 7.34 percent from $38,936 to $41,795.

The largest dollar increase in salary was $9,024 for Rachael Baker, the fiscal officer, from $31,016 to $40,040. The largest percentage increase of 30.5 went to Irene Maszczak, an election tabulator. Her annual salary went from $26,279 to $34,295.

The starting salary at the board is increasing from $12.31 an hour to $14.08, Alberini said.

Trumbull board members Diana Marchese and Ron Knight spent the past four to five months reviewing job descriptions, responsibilities and salaries and comparing them to other election boards and Trumbull County employees, Alberini said.

Knight, the lone no vote on the increases, said: “I’m old fashioned in that I don’t support spending money that we don’t have. I was also concerned about the fact that some employees got a substantial increase. Everyone got an increase, but some were substantial. I didn’t see the rationale for the difference in pay. I agree our employees are underpaid, but not in the action that was done.”

Knight said: “I wanted to see a uniform increase. I favored everyone getting the same dollar increase. I don’t agree with the rates.”

Marchese said she supported the increase to “make it consistent with the Trumbull County salary schedule.”

Board member Arno Hill voted in favor of the increases though he said he was “not in favor of it 100 percent. But I agree we need to adjust the pays. If you have good people in this labor market, you want to keep them. I have some reservations about this.”

Asked why the board went years with wages lower than the rest of county employees, Alberini said: “Good question. Nobody was complaining so there was nothing that motivated us to come to this decision. But we realized it was harder to hire and retain good, quality employees at the rate we were paying. That’s why we looked at this.”

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