By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The Stevens Point controller-treasurer is in line for a pay raise, as are some other city employees, including firefighters.
The Stevens Point Personnel Committee recommended Monday night that the comptroller-treasurer position assume additional supervisory duties and receive a $5,000 pay raise.
The committee also endorsed a tentative agreement with firefighters and reclassified two other positions. The firefighters' contract represents a 3 percent increase in city costs for 1999 and 2000, with wages rising 2.6 percent in 1999 and 1.3 percent in 2000.
The additional supervisory duties involve an amendment to the city's organizational chart that places the accounting/data processing manager under the comptroller-treasurer instead of the mayor because the treasurer works closely with the manager.
John Schlice, who was elected in 1997, has been receiving $40,868 in annual salary. The raise would be effective Jan. 1, 2000.
Four other cities in the state have the comptroller-treasurer as a joint position and all are appointed positions, with salaries from $39,420 in Menomonie to $77,578 in Wauwatosa. Even with the increase, the Stevens Point position would remain the second lowest in pay.
Lisa Jakusz, city personnel specialist, said communities around Stevens Point don't have the combined position.
Mayor Gary Wescott said Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and Wausau have a finance director in addition to the elected treasurer.
Aldermen Perry Pazdernik, 3rd Ward, and John Kedrowski, 5th Ward, were concerned about giving an elected official a pay raise in mid-term.
City Attorney Louis Molepske said elected governing officials such as mayor and aldermen could not receive a pay raise but other elected officials such as the clerk and treasurer could.
Alderman Jack Barr, 6th Ward, said the reason for the increase was the additional duties and supervision.
Alderman Neal Nealis, 9th Ward, said the increase should have been done years ago to make the wage comparable to other department heads. "The city has been getting by cheap for years," he said.
The committee took action on some other pay raises, reclassifying the operations supervisor in the Transit Department and the account clerk I in the comptroller-treasurer's office, both because of additional duties.
The reclassification of the operations supervisor will cost about $4,682 in 2000 and the clerk's about $1,456 in 1999 and $2,912 in 2000. The clerk's wages are subject to back pay to July 1.