Floyd County supervisors consider engineer compensation

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

All the Floyd County supervisors agreed that new County Engineer Jacob Page has been doing a fine job in his first six months on the job. They just didn’t agree whether he should be getting four weeks of vacation in his first year.

Supervisor Doug Kamm, who had led the search for the new county engineer, said the fact of today’s job market is that such benefits are in demand.

“You try to do what the market tells us – it’s the reality of the world,” Kamm said.

County Auditor Gloria Carr agreed that the the county needs to look at how it compensates employees, but “20 days is really a slap in the face” to other county employees who may have worked many years and are still not getting four weeks of vacation.

The county handbook says employees are eligible for 20 days of vacation after 14 years of work, she said.

Kamm responded that Page’s $100,000 salary might also be seen as a slap in the face by some employees who think they should be paid more.

“Tell them to become engineers,” Kamm said.

When Page began work March 1 he had an engineering degree and four years of experience as an engineer, but did not yet have his professional engineer (PE) license, as is required by the state for county engineers. He started at an annual salary of $90,000, with the agreement that it would increase to $100,000 when he received his PE, which he did in June.

In addition to 20 days of vacation, the contract Page proposed with the county calls for an increase to $105,000 beginning Sept. 1 and going through the end of this fiscal year, June 30, 2023.

Page said he had recently spent some time talking with the county’s human resources consultant to prepare a contract with the county, because state law requires that county engineers have a contract, along with other qualification requirements.

He said a large majority of county engineers in the state get 20 days of vacation.

“I’d like to keep the 20 days in the contract,” Page said.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said she struggled with starting off at 20 days, and “maybe we could do something in between.”

Jacob urged the supervisors to talk with their human resources consultant, Mike Galloway, an attorney with Ahlers & Cooney PC of Des Moines, and Tjaden said she would do so.

There were a couple of other questions about the proposed contract, so the board took no action at its meeting this week.

Also at the board meeting, the supervisors:

• Closed out the capital projects account for the law enforcement center and courthouse update project, putting the final $23 in that account toward the $123,726 monthly construction pay app and paying the rest out of the county’s general fund.

The July pay app from construction management company The Samuels Group shows that $15.057 million had been spent so far on the construction, with about 94% of the project completed at that time. The remaining amount to be paid, projected at $972,544, will come from the general fund and from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars.

The total project construction cost is projected at $16.160 million, plus an amount for architectural services that is currently in litigation in federal court.

Brian Shindelar, project superintendent with The Samuels Group, said this week that the current schedule is to be substantially finished with the project by Thanksgiving or the end of November, finish out punch list items in December and be done by the end of the year.

• Approved a letter of support for a Cedar River Water Trail Project through a Floyd County grant application. Conservation Director Adam Sears said the project would include signage and markers along the river to help people know where they are and where the access points are. The county Conservation Board had already approved a letter of support.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said a lot of attention is paid to the need for biking and hiking trails, which are expensive to build, but “the Cedar River is right there” and a great resource.

• Set a public hearing for 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, for an amendment to the current fiscal year county budget, to account for receipt and potential spending of ARPA funds, receipt of donations and expenditures for the Sheriff’s Office’s new K9 program, increased costs for court-ordered delinquent juvenile detention and other changes.

The total amendment is for an additional $1,557,939 in revenue, with $1.52 million of that the ARPA funds, and an additional $1,317,310 in potential expenditures.