All

Fayette County employees will get a 2/7 percent

cost of living increase next year, but only 17

will get the highest possible merit increase, an

additional 5 percent.

County

commissioners have approved a new merit pay

system that they hope will reward the best

workers and give those who are less than

satisfactory something to shoot for.

The

group last year asked the Personnel Department to

track pay increases under both the old system and

the proposed new system to see how the new system

might affect the county budget.

There

would be almost no effect on the budget, said

personnel director Connie Boehnke after tracking

the figures for a year. Last year's pay increases

totalled 5 percent, while this year's will be

about 4.8 percent under the new system, Boehnke

said.

The

difference is that, while 17 employees rated

"outstanding" under the new evaluation

system will get a total of 7.7 percent, five

rated "unsatisfactory" and 36 rated

"needs improvement" will get only the

2.7 percent cost of living adjustment. An

additional 113 in the "satisfactory 2"

category will receive 3.95 percent, 126 workers

rated "satisfactory 1" will get 5.2

percent, and 58 rated "excellent" will

get 6.45 percent.

"It's

a step in the right direction," Commissioner

Herb Frady said of the new evaluation system,

which provides both objective and subjective

criteria for supervisors to use in rating the

workers.

"What

we have done is restructure our pay system so

that good employees get rewarded more than bad

ones do," said Commissioner Greg Dunn. Dunn

called for the changes last year, complaining

that, although the previous system was referred

to as a "merit" system, virtually all

workers received the same 5 percent merit

increase.

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