ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 14, 2000

LAPLACE- It looks like St. John the Baptist Parish employees with over 15years of service are going to have to wait a bit longer to get their raises.

Again, the issue of equalization was raised and argued about at the last council meeting as the administration and the council couldn’t agree on what pay plan should be given to 15-year-plus employees.

Two weeks ago the St. John Parish Council asked the Civil Service Board toaccept its plan where all employees with 15 or more years of employment would be topped-out at the top level of the new pay plan, which is level 15.

However, at the same meeting, the administration said its plan would top out the employees at level 13 then give the employees two more raises.

Councilman Dale Wolfe didn’t agree and ordered the Civil Service Board to OK the council’s plan.

Last Tuesday night St. John Parish Human Resources Director WalterColeman told the council the issue was “at the same point we were at last month.””Wrong answer,” said Wolfe. “We passed a resolution saying all 15-yearemployees be topped out. We set policy and procedure, and theadministration has to carry it out. The employees are waiting for theirincrease.”Coleman replied, “We topped them out at step 13.”Wolfe asked council attorney Charles Lorio what the duty of the administration is.

Lorio said, “I must advise the administration to follow the council’s resolution.””What happens if they don’t?” asked Wolfe.

“You can file a lawsuit, and if that doesn’t work, you can file criminal charges,” he answered.

But Parish President Nickie Monica protested, saying, “We presented a plan to the council that would top out the employees at step 13 and they would get two more raises over two years. This is what you voted on. If they votedon something different, I would like to know what it is.”Wolfe responded, “My resolution would be to top off 15-year employees at step 15. We have an employee who has worked for the parish for 34 years,and now you want him to wait two more years? That doesn’t make much sense.”Council secretary Jackie Landeche read the resolution approved by the council, which said all employees with 15 years were to be topped out.

Lorio then told the council it should adopt a motion clarifying the earlier motion and include topping off the employees at level 15.

Wolfe said, “This council knew exactly what it was voting on. We don’t need anew motion tonight. Besides, the Civil Service Board passed it on a 15-yearplan, not 13.”Jeff Clement, the chief financial officer of the parish, said the administration’s plan does agree with the council’s plan.

“Step 13 is equivalent to step six in the old plan,” said Clement. “Toppingthem out was what we did, plus we are going to give them two more raises which had never existed before.”Lester Rainey was not pleased with the new plan.

“There are a lot of gray areas with this plan,” Rainey said. “Thus we are atthis point. When the Civil Service approved the plan, there was no talk of 13years with two raises.”The confusion over the pay plans had Steve Lee aligning himself with Wolfe.

“I will stand with Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Rainey in order to clean this up. If it takesnine months to do so, so be it,” declared Lee.

The issue was dropped when council president Melissa Faucheux said, “We should let the administration deal with this and come back to us with an update.”Until the next council meeting, 15-year parish employees will not see a raise in their pay envelopes.

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