January 1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

January 23, 1991 Board of Commissioners St. Joseph County 7th Floor, County/City Bldg. South Bend, IN 46601 Honorable County Commissioners: I am concerned about our current employment and payroll practices. Within the past three years, 60% of the persons who have been employed here have taken positions elsewhere. The reason they give for leaving is often not higher gross wages, but rather the smaller net wages they take home due to the fact that they must pay self-employment tax. With such a high turn -over rate, the Commission puts out a product of minimal quantity and quality because they must continually train new personnel. This inefficiency reflects poorly on the County as well as the Commission. I also have been cruestioned—by--t-he_State—Board—af—Accounts and the City Attorney's representative to the Commission regarding the discrepancy between the manner in which we hire the staff and the manner in which we pay them. We advertise and interview persons for positions just as any other department, choosing the most qualified and capable applicant. We then pay them an hourly wage, just as the county would an employee, but expect them to handle their own withholding, insurance, etc. Normally, government contracts would be bid or the individuals would be employees of the entity. I believe that bidding the contract would also provide inconsistancy and a lack of control on the part of the Commission over the end product. This leaves only the option of withholding taxes for the staff, which is not within the capacity of the County or City budgetary restraints at this time. To solve this problem, and to aid in retaining the competent staff members we currently have, I made a proposal to John Lentz in my letter of September 14, 1990. Although he has not had an opportunity yet to respond, I would like to share this idea with you for your comments. I propose that the staff be contracted employees of the Historic Preservation Commission, rather than private contractors. The Commission would still submit all hiring and firing to you for your approval, according to ordinance. It may be necessary to amend the county enabling ordinance to reflect the change in status of the personnel, although the current wording does not imply that the staff is privately contracted. It may also be necessary for the HPC to acquire its own federal identification number, since we are a governmental entity of both the county and the city.