Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@shawanoleader.com
The Shawano County Board of Supervisors agreed on Wednesday, by a 25-1 vote, to spend $42,000 on a wage and job classification study for the county.
The action ends months of discussion whether to hire an outside firm to do the study or to do it in-house.
The board selected Madison-based Carlson Dettmann Consulting LLC to do the study.
“Pay is something that everyone has an opinion about,” said Charlie Carlson, a partner with the consulting firm. “Essentially, for the last four decades, pay determination in government in Wisconsin has been driven by collective bargaining. When Act 10 passed, the rules on how we did things were thrown away, and nothing was put in its place.”
Act 10 drastically cut collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, prompting many of them to dissolve and forcing municipalities to deal with issues formerly covered in union contracts.
Supervisor Gene Hoppe, who had previously opposed spending money on a wage study, praised Carlson Dettmann, pointing out that the firm did similar studies in Oconto and Waupaca counties.
However, Hoppe questioned how much work would be required in the study for Shawano County.
“The job classifications should be the same because the counties are the same, aren’t they?” he asked.
Carlson said the counties don’t all operate the same way. Waupaca County’s Highway Department, for example, was tasked with building roads, while Calumet County — another county where Carlson Dettman did a wage study — is required only to maintain roads, he said.
Supervisor Deb Noffke said she wanted to see Carlson Dettmann provide guidance on how to effectively institute a pay-for-performance plan. Noffke noted a previous plan was not properly implemented.
Carlson said he was not going to say the county had to adopt any particular plan, but he would offer an opinion if he thought the plan would be a good fit.
Carlson promised he would have information ready in March for committee and board consideration. He also his firm would continue working on the plan until the board was satisfied with the information.
“When we take a project, our expectation is that we’ll get it adopted,” Carlson said. “We’ll stick with you until we get it right.”