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Politics & Government

Proposed Lehigh County Contracts 'Break A Paradigm'

Lehigh County can't afford double raises veteran workers have traditionally received, commissioners say.

The days of double raises for Lehigh County employees may be over.  

Two – one for court workers and one for the nurses’ aides and maintenance workers at , the county’s nursing home – contain wage increases of 2 to 3 percent.

That’s a far cry from former contracts when it was traditional that county employees would receive a general increase of, say, 4 percent. Then, if they had been with the county for a few years, they’d also get a step increase of as much as 5 percent on top of that. The double raises would be awarded each year until the employee hit the top of the pay scale.  

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Some Lehigh County commissioners said Wednesday that the county couldn’t afford such pay hikes anymore. 

“This contract begins… to break a paradigm that has been in existence that has troubled many of the commissioners and many citizens and that is, people getting a step increase and also getting a general increase,” Commissioner William Hansell said. “Commissioner [Dean] Browning has taken a lead role over the years in advocating that that paradigm be broken." 

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Hansell said the proposed contracts were fair with small raises, but added that the employees are not getting rich off the county. Salaries for the unionized court workers range from $23,478 to $68,509, he said. The salary range for the Cedarbrook workers -- excluding the nurses, who negotiate separately -- is broader but overall, lower, he said. 

Commissioners Percy Dougherty and Tom Creighton abstained from voting on whether to recommend the contracts during a committee meeting, saying later they wanted to study them. Both said they’d prefer to freeze wages for county employees because many taxpayers who work in the private sector aren’t getting raises in the weak economy. Dougherty and Creighton said they’d have to see how much the county employees’ greater contributions toward health care and the Cedarbrook workers’ giveback of some accrued sick days would help offset the raises. 

Commissioner Andy Roman said he’d prefer that the raises were merit-based rather than across the board but overall the contracts looked good.  Browning, who had previously said he’d like to see a wage freeze for county employees, was pleased that his efforts to end double raises were bearing fruit. “I think it’s going to be a huge savings for the county," he said. 

During public comment, Vicky Kistler, director of the Allentown Health Bureau, told the commissioners that her mother is an Alzheimer’s patient at Cedarbrook.  

“It is an absolutely stellar organization,” Kistler said. She said she had been a nurse’s aide in a nursing home and worked at two hospitals. “I think I know a good nurse when I see one. And that’s what I see at Cedarbrook, a quality staff across the board.”  

She said she’s proud that the county owns the nursing home, which is run by a private management company.  

“Cedarbrook may not [have] the cherrywood furniture that you find in some of the other nursing homes, but it is clean and the capital improvements have made a tremendous difference.”

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