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2 <br />enough, people would feel compensated and a highly effective person could <br />receive a bonus. <br />Chair Carey asked if the objective is to give people on the low <br />end of the scale a higher percentage than those at the top end of the scale. <br />If everyone receives a merit, the question is how effective is it. He said <br />that the problem with bonuses is that the money is not added to the base pay <br />which is used in determining retirement benefits. He suggested eliminating <br />the merit for effective and increasing the cost of living adjustment. <br />Elaine Holmes explained the system being recommended at the State <br />level which has three components. The first is career growth recognition. <br />The second is a cost-of-living increase and third is a plan for performance <br />bonuses. The funding decisions for each level will be done annually. This <br />year they are recommending two percent for career growth recognition, one <br />percent for COLA and one percent of payroll for performance bonuses giving <br />flexibility in this area with the actual award being more or less than the one <br />percent. This would mean that every employee will receive at least a three <br />percent increase on base salary and a performance bonus that would not become <br />part of the base salary. <br />Chair Carey suggested that employees below a certain salary level <br />could be given a choice of adding the merit to their base pay or receiving a <br />bonus. He noted that there is not a perfect plan to address compensation. <br />He feels the County has a good program in place and what the Board needs to <br />decide is if they want to continue with the plan in place or change it. <br />Commissioner Insko noted they decided not to do the survey. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis noted that he wants to look at what can be <br />done for the people at the lower end of the salary scale. By the time the <br />deductions are taken, there is not much left. The minimum for a full-time <br />employee is $7.13 an hour. Chair Carey said the Board will continue to be <br />concerned with those employees at the lower end of the scale. <br />It was decided that the Board does want to continue to tie <br />Performance Evaluation to Merit Pay. <br />C. What types of salary increase do we continue to pursue? <br />John Link reiterated that he understands from the discussion <br />that part of the increase needs to be an adjustment in the salary range which <br />will increase the base salary for retirement purposes. It seems that the <br />lingering issue is how to apply the merit pay. He suggested that he come back <br />to the Board with alternatives and figures on this part of the plan. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that she is still interested in <br />looking at a combination of bonus and salary increase. <br />John Link noted that the administration of a combination would <br />need to be developed. It may be difficult to determined how one person gets <br />one percent and another person with the same rating gets three percent. He <br />feels it would be important to have some consistency throughout. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis stated that there needs to be a clearly <br />defined process. He wants to be sure that the County can keep good competent <br />people. He asked if there have been any employees suggest changes that will <br />save money and John Link indicated that that has been happening. He will be <br />presenting, during budget discussions, an incentive program for saving money. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis endorsed this idea stating that he feels there are lots <br />of ideas that can save the county money. He noted that both school systems <br />come in with their budgets and for the last eight years, the Board has <br />