Department

heads evaluating the performance of Fayette

County workers have a new tool, but what the new

evaluation system means in terms of salary

increases is still up in the air.

After

discussing the matter for more than a half hour

last week, county commissioners couldn't agree on

whether workers should automatically receive

merit raises if they achieve designated scores in

their evaluations, or whether department heads

should be given discretion to mete out rewards.

They unanimously approved a new evaluation method

that uses measurable criteria for scoring

performance.

"We

need to put some authority and responsibility in

the hands of the department heads," said

commission Chairman Harold Bost.

"I

like quantitative measurement," argued

Commissioner Linda Wells. "That nebulous

moving target at the end of the year could cause

a great deal of dissention among employees."

Bost

said he believes managers, knowing that a given

score results in an automatic raise and that a

lesser score means a lower raise, will be tempted

or pressured to cook the scores to reward

employees who aren't putting out quite enough

effort but who are well-liked by managers.

"I

have always believed in paying the people who are

producing and not those who are not

producing," he said.

But

Jack Krakeel, spokesman for a group of employees

and department heads who have been studying the

county's compensation system, said the result of

giving managers discretion will be the opposite

of what Bost intends.

"We

believe that the instrument we've developed

reduces the ability of the manager to determine

on a whim whether the employee [should receive a

raise]," said Krakeel, director of the

county Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

County

administrator Billy Beckett agreed with Krakeel.

A worker shouldn't get a raise "just because

that person has done a better job of

brown-nosing," he said.

Commissioner

Greg Dunn, who helped hammer out the evaluation

system proposed by the employee committee, said

the system should be implemented now, and

commissioners could decide how to reward

exceptional workers later.

The

system includes an automatic cost of living

increase for all workers, something the county

hasn't had in the past. Instead, county budgets

have included up to 5 percent per worker in merit

increases, with supervisors deciding who gets the

money and how much. Over time, said Dunn, that

system has deteriorated into an almost automatic

5 percent pay raise, even for workers who don't

meet minimum standards.

"You

had to be indictable not to get a raise around

here," he said.

In

the coming year, department heads will use both

the old evaluation system and the new ones in

reviewing employee performance, and commissioners

will take another shot later at deciding how to

dole out the merit increases.

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