County employees aren’t getting more than a 5% raise this year and some department heads have concerns.
The Johnson County Council held first readings of the 2025 county budget on Tuesday and Thursday. Despite pushback from department heads and elected officials, the council held firm to its guideline of 5% raises for employees. The council also OK’d new employees for a few departments, while denying others.
The mandated raise percentage is to correct the previous council’s practices of applying raises unequally, said Pam Burton, council president.
“It was the goal of this council last year and this year and hopefully next year to try to not eliminate the elected officials from the decision because you guys are exactly right, you know what your people need … but to [make] some of those [raises] more consistent,” Burton said, “And then start with the practice of, ‘Okay here’s your X amount of percent’ following whatever matrix you’ve provided to make that fair and equitable to everyone.”
The council wasn’t as strict with new employee requests. Some departments were approved for all of the new employees requested, while others received no new employees.
The second budget reading will start at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 12. The council is expected to adopt the budget during a 6 p.m. meeting on Oct. 14.
‘Hold the line’
The 5% ceiling for employee raises was a contentious issue. Many department heads and elected officials revised their budgets after the August workshop to align with the council’s guidelines, while several opted to plead their case for their original asks.
Throughout the first readings, the council was largely united behind the across-the-board 5% increase, however, council member Jonathan T. Myers consistently voted against budgets that the council reduced to 5%. Members John Mallers, John Ditmars, Ron Deer and Melinda Griesemer sided with Burton. Member John Myers recently resigned his seat to accept the position of Edinburgh Town Manager.
“I don’t believe we as a council, a seven-member body, should be looking into each department and making decisions on an individual basis,” Jonathan T. Myers said. “I think that that should be within the realm, and it is within the realm, of the elected official or elected officials, and we’re responsible for looking into those when they’re way out of line.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Johnson County Recorder Teresa Petro said she chose not to submit a revised budget because her 2025 budget is less than the current budget. Her employees are also paid less than other comparable offices, she said.
Petro asked the council for an approximately 6% increase and even cut a position that is currently unfilled as a bargaining chip. Despite this offering, the council voted to reduce her budget increases to 5%.
Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess and Chief Deputy Andy Barnhart on Thursday argued for higher increases, though they did revise the department’s and jail’s budget to be within the guidelines. With the 5% increase, deputies and jail officers will continue to be paid less nearby departments, Burgess said.
“I think we played ball this year with it and it’s something we cannot do next year,” Burgess said. “We need to get the cream of the crop … We’re going to have to work next year because I’m going to submit what I need to submit next year because I can’t be behind the eight ball with this.”
Barnhart said he thinks everyone understands the purpose behind “holding the line this year.” But he said the council has promised pay will be fixed year after year. Although the department isn’t losing people at a significant rate on the merit side, Barnhart said the department is having trouble attracting and retaining jail officers.
“When you call 911 and you want someone to show up, you want the best person on your worst day to be there, correct?” Barnhart said. “Do you want the leftovers? That’s what we get if we can’t compete with the town of Bargersville, we can’t compete with other counties.”
The Johnson County Commissioners on Thursday also asked for higher salary increases for their employees to catch up from the past. Commissioner Ron West said the commissioners adhered to the council’s recommendations in previous years while others got raises beyond the recommended percentage.
“So this year, we didn’t want to take a chance of that happening again. And quite honestly, we thought that maybe there was some justification in the salary percentages that we presented this year to kind of catch up for the years in the past when we did adhere to the recommendations and had a shortfall in the employee compensation as a result,” West said.
The commissioners asked the council to consider a higher pay increase for the commissioner’s executive assistant and for the county coordinator and assistant county attorney to get $10,000 stipends. They argued that these employees deserve stipends because of their workload compared to their pay.
Burton said the across-the-board increases aren’t because she doesn’t agree county employees deserve the money, it is because the council is holding firm this year on their budget guidelines.
“That line item is not the only one in this county that is being overlooked for the amount of work that they’re required to do …,” Burton said to the commissioners. “So, don’t think anything that I vote for up here today has anything to do with disrespect or thinking you’re asking for more than is needed. I just think my vote is to hold the line.”
Aside from Myers, the council voted as a united front to reduce the commissioners’ salary increases to 5% and to remove the stipends.
After the vote, Commissioner Brian Baird told the council he disagrees with their decision to deny these stipends as they move forward with stipends for other employees. The decision is “very discriminatory toward our people,” he said.
New employees
The council approved new employees for the animal shelter and the prosecutor’s office, while denying employees for the juvenile detention center.
During budget workshops, Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner asked for three new prosecutors and three new paralegals to better handle the county’s court caseload. He was granted all six new employees.
“We currently have 17 attorneys. In other words, 76% of what we need to protect our citizens is what we have. We’re outmatched by six of the seven donut counties, only Shelby County is numerically worse off …,” Hamner said. “The Department of Justice says you need a paralegal for each prosecutor. That’s the standard. We’re not asking for that, but right now we only have half a paralegal for each prosecutor.”
Johnson County Animal Shelter Director Cari Klotzsche requested three new employees with funds reallocated from the part-time budget. She granted the new employees, but the council cut her raises to 5%.
“It’s going to make it really tough next year with part-time, but the goal is to give more responsibility for full-time to take that load off of part-time, and we’re trying to lessen our need for part-time employees,” Klotzsche said.
Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center Director Kristi Bruther asked for five new employees. However, council members said they would only support two or three this year with preliminary permission to request more employees later.
The request, however, was all or nothing. Bruther said the department specifically needs five new employees to increase the juvenile detention center’s capacity from 24 to 36. Johnson County is one of only a dozen counties with a juvenile detention center, so the staff supports not only Johnson County but many surrounding counties, she said.
“We get phone calls daily to take out-of-county youth, which is a way for the county to generate income,” Bruther said. “We do say ‘no’ quite often because we do not have the staff and have the resources we need.”
The request would have put one additional correctional officer on each of the four shifts and added a teacher. Although the estimated cost of salaries and expenses would be around $300,000, Bruther said anticipated revenue would have been near $700,000.
The council approved the budget without the employees, but Bruther said she was happy to start the conversation with the council.
