Sheriff’s personnel contract OK’d

By KAYLEIGH KARUTIS, The Leader-Herald
JOHNSTOWN — After several months of negotiations and fine-tuning, the Fulton County Board of Supervisors approved a contract for some employees at the Sheriff’s Department and the County Jail.

Cooks, guards, dispatchers and two clerks in the sheriff’s civil office will receive 3.25 percent raises each year of the contract, which is retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year and will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2011. The contract does not apply to patrol deputies — who have a separate union — or the undersheriff, the sheriff, the department’s captain and the sheriff’s secretary, who are non-union employees.

Perth Town Supervisor Gregory Fagan, chairman of the county board’s Personnel Committee, said the terms of the contract were negotiated in late 2007 but it took months of adjustment before the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff’s Office came to an agreement.

The Board of Supervisors met in a 20-minute executive session Monday to discuss the details of the final contract before unanimously approving it.

“We went through a lot of wording changes [in the negotiation process],” Fagan said.

Fagan described the process as a tough one, but he said the end result was worth the effort. He said he hopes the communication between supervisors and Sheriff’s Department employees would facilitate more discussion in the future.

“We try to do the best we can for the employees and the taxpayer,” he said.

Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey, who participated in the contract negotiations, said he was pleased with the final result.

“I think it’s a fair contract,” he said. “It was give and take on both sides, and we both came out winners.”

The contract is discussed and renewed every four years. This year’s contract, said both Fagan and Lorey, is a relatively standard one.

“The process was drawn out … but this was a pretty basic contract,” Fagan said.

Lorey agreed.

“They tried to treat all the employees equally, and they’ve been successful,” Lorey said.

In addition to the 3.25 percent raise each year, the contract was amended in other ways. Sick leave with pay will be granted due to illness in an employee’s “immediate family,” which now includes step-children.

Employees working overtime on specified holidays will be paid twice the standard hourly rate.

Fagan said the Board of Supervisors is now engaged in negotiations with the Police Benevolent Association to develop a contract for deputies, the undersheriff and the sheriff.



Kayleigh Karutis covers rural Fulton County news. She can be reached at ruralnews@leaderherald.com.