Staff salaries take budget hit again
By Monty Tayloe
All over Fairfax County, programs and services are feeling the burden of a tight budget year. It's a big adjustment, but for Fairfax County employees, being squeezed by the budget is nothing new.“Our employees' morale is horrible; we have a horrible reputation,” said Supervisor Mike Frey (R-Sully).
The advocate for Fairfax County's employees, the Fairfax County Employee Advisory Council, agrees.
“[The Board of Supervisors] is using us as a tool to balance the budget. ... No one believes this is a system to reward employees anymore,” said Randy Creller, the council's vice chair.
Frey and Creller were referring to the county's pay for performance system, designed to reward employees based on evaluations of their performance during the year. Under the system, each employee is assigned a numerical score, and yearly raises are given out based on that score.
This year's proposed budget halves the percentage raises that would be granted under this system, affecting salaries for all county employees except public safety. It's not a new phenomenon in Fairfax.
“Six of the last eight years they've changed the numbers on us,” Creller said. By repeatedly adjusting the rewards for high performance downward, the board has effectively removed the incentives that are the whole point of such a system, he said.
“We have not upheld our part of the bargain,” Frey said.
According to Anita Baker, chair of the Employee Advisory Council, it would cost just over $12 million to pay the employees at the rates the board promised last year and fix the market rate adjustment to the pay scale. Each year, the pay scale is increased to reflect inflation. However, current employees never see that increase and, under the current numbers, new hires can make more money than longtime employees.
“These aren't just one-time cuts. This can affect our retirements,” Baker said. Retirement plans for county employees are calculated using their potential earnings, numbers that keep dropping as the board adjusts salary formulas, according to Baker.
Dranesville Supervisor John Foust (D) says that flexibility in the way employees are paid is essential.
“They want us to be a little more rigid year after year, but I'm not sure that you can give up the flexibility. ... Adjusting it should be the exception, not the rule,” Foust said.
“It is increasingly evident that making it easy to adjust those numbers was the real reason behind going to this system,” Baker said.
email the reporter at mtayloe@timespapers.com