Dubois County Council meeting; Decides to cut probationary pay restriction

By a five to two vote, the Dubois County Council removed the 90-day 90-percent pay probationary period for new hires.

The policy under which newly hired county employees would only receive 90 percent of their full pay for their first 90 days has been in effect for several years now. The council has granted reprieves from the policy on a case-by-case basis. In a recent survey, those decisions on the pay were criticized by employees.

The policy was enacted to allow employees to become acclimated with the job as well as prove themselves worthy of the full pay for the position.

County Department Heads, most of which are elected officials, have complained the policy made it difficult to find employees. The reduced pay on top of wages that are lower than similar positions in the private sector has caused some potential employees to balk at accepting a position within the county.

Council President Greg Kendall made a motion to do away with the policy and it was seconded by Charmian Klem. Craig Greulich and Martha Wehr were the lone nay votes.

“If we can solve the problems by elimination of something that is very controversial to begin with, why not do that,” Kendall said during the meeting.

The policy is set to go into effect January 1st.

The council also took the following actions.

-Discussed the pay for former Community Corrections Assistant Director Jenny Fuhs. She was only compensated $1,000 for her work as the interim director. The council acknowledged that Fuhs did a great job as interim director while also performing duties as assistant director and a case manager, but felt the bonus was insufficient for her performing those duties. Fuhs would have been paid an additional $7,300 as director. Council member Jerry Hunefeld is part of the corrections board and promised to take up the issue at their next meeting.

-Heard from County Commissioner Larry Vollmer that the new county-wide communications system should go live in mid-February. The new system was implemented after the county received many complaints from fire and rescue personnel that there were too many locations in the county in which emergency radio signals dropped out. Another factor was the failure of the tornado sirens to sound on several occasions. Vollmer implemented a study in June 2013 of the entire system. The new system boasts a coverage area of 95 percent of the county. Vollmer also reported that a communications antenna will be moved to the top of the 911 tower in the county because it’s signal couldn’t reach Haysville where it was located.

-Voted against imposing filing fee for people who utilized a business personal property tax exemption for companies or for farmers with $20,000 or less in equipment.