Raises approved for Clark County BOE staff


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Clark County Board of Elections officials recently approved salary adjustments for four of its full-time employees who are among the lowest paid in the county and among other county boards of elections of comparable size.

Employees are expected to receive a 10 percent equity salary adjustment and a 2 percent cost of living raise.

The unanimous vote of the board of elections came days after Clark County commissioners said they would allocate an additional $6,000 to the board. Commissioners said they would consider allocating additional money to the board next year.

Board members Dale Henry and Ted A. McClenen said the raises are deserved.

“The staff at the board of elections has been underpaid for years, and we finally are trying to bring them up to decent wages because it’s hard to keep people if you don’t pay them for what they do,” McClenen said. “The staff is very important to Clark County as far as getting the votes accurate and no mistakes, so they definitely needed the adjustment.”

Clark County Board of Elections Director Matthew Tlachac had sought an average of a 19 percent pay raise for the four employees after conducting a compensation study that showed elections staff are paid lower than other Clark County workers at a similar grade level and other boards of elections employees in other counties.

According to the study, the average pay for Clark County elections staff is about $25,300. But Allen County, which handles just 67,000 voters — 20,000 fewer registered voters than Clark County — pays its four staff members an average salary of about $31,600.

The study also states that Clark County has a full-time staff compensation level that falls below the average of more than $31,400, while counties from the central and northern regions of Ohio have an above average compensation level.

“The Clark County salary account total, even with the increase, would still fall shy of being above the average,” according to the report.

Henry said he was pleased officials were able to approve the pay raises.

“We felt it was justified,” Henry said. “The board actually felt that the staff has shown good stewardship in the past … and that this is something we should do to retain good workers.”

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