By Peggy R. Shearin
Correspondent

Many Warren County employees can expect as much as a 15.5 percent raise in salary during the coming months, as the Warren County Board of Commissioners agreed to spend $882,000 to bring some employee salaries in line with other counties in our area.
The Commissioners agreed, at least in principle, to the raises after hearing the results of a county employee compensation study. The board will meet again today, Feb. 21, at 2:45 p.m. in the Warren County Department of Social Services to discuss the plan again.
Roger Scott of Springstead Inc., which conducted the study, met with the commissioners on Thursday and explained that he had surveyed 14 agencies within a 50-mile radius to reach a market standard for county salaries. Among those agencies were the counties of Franklin, Bath, and Halifax.
He told the commissioners it would cost Warren County $1,236,000 to raise employee salaries to the point where they all met the average of those 14 agencies studied.
He also said it would cost $992,000 to bring county salaries within 95 percent of the area average, and $614,000 for 90 percent.
The Warren County commissioners chose the 95 percent option, with $88,924 of the cost coming from money that had been set aside, but not spent, on employee raises this year. The rest would come from the county’s fund balance.
While voicing support for bringing county salaries close to the regional average, Commissioner Ulysses Ross stressed the need for an efficiency study of each county department.
Scott replied such a study is more time consuming and expensive than a salary study, and no others on the board voiced support for such a move.
Commissioner Bill Davis, also voicing support for the move, said even if the county cannot make the across the board pay raises, it should at least do so for key personnel such as law enforcement and emergency response personnel.
The move by the commissioners did not, however, address those employees who receive part of their pay from the state and part from the county. Such employees include those in the Extension Service office and some social services workers.
Because these salaries are split between the state and county, these employees sometimes do not get pay raises equal to other county employees. For example, if the state determines these workers should get a 5 percent pay raise, the state funds half of that raise, leaving it up to individual counties to fund the rest. In the current fiscal year, which began July 1, Warren County did not fund the other half of those raises.