The first attempt to reorganize Butler County's largest department failed this month when the Salary Board refused to establish two director positions that would oversee day-to-day and fiscal operations.
The county's new human services director, Joyce Ainsworth, has said she wants to reorganize the department and integrate programs. She had proposed reworking two administrative posts into positions that would have had additional responsibilities and higher pay. The proposal stalled in a 2-2 vote.
“This really puts a crimp in what I had planned to do,” Ainsworth said.
“It's going to make it much harder to do my job.”
On Dec. 10, salary board members Commissioner James Eckstein and Controller Ben Holland voted against Ainsworth's request to add two director positions within her department.
The men said they were looking for ways to save the county money.
“If I did this, I might as well go home,” Holland said at the meeting. “I couldn't walk back into my office.”
Commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton voted to approve the changes.
Pinkerton said that Holland and Eckstein “can say what they want, but it's getting down to personalities.”
Ainsworth filed a sexual discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Eckstein in 2012 after he criticized her during a public meeting about travel expenses.
Commissioners settled the complaint by agreeing to undergo training on dealing with employees.
Pinkerton said that Ainsworth “is trying to build her team in a proper manner.”
The Salary Board is made up of the three county commissioners, plus Holland, and when applicable, a row officer who votes on changes affecting his or her staff.
After the county commissioners named Ainsworth in November to replace Carmine Scotece as human services director, the Salary Board eliminated her old position as deputy director.
She had been deputy director of human services since 2011.
Ainsworth hoped to promote two managerial employees into new posts.
Amanda Feltenberger, director of service integration and quality management, at an hourly salary of just over $26, would become director of integrated services, receiving $27.05 an hour.
Fiscal operations officer Ann Brown, who is paid $36.43 an hour, would become director of human services' fiscal operations, making $37.90 an hour.
“We have incredibly talented directors that know their stuff,” said Ainsworth, who added that the women would have been able to fill in for her when she was away.
Ainsworth said that when she was promoted, she “never in my wildest dreams would I think they'd cut the deputy out of that.”
Ainsworth will be making $89,000 as director, down from Scotece's $93,703 salary for 2014.
Though Scotece retired in October, he's been working part time during the transition.
Ainsworth said that with her lower salary, the lack of a deputy director and other changes she's considering, her department could have saved at least $50,000.
“Human services is growing and I understand there's a lot of work to be done there, but at a time when there are so many (salary) inequities ... according to the salary study, I think we need to address some of these issues,” Holland said in rejecting her plans.
Scotece, speaking during the Salary Board meeting, argued state funding paid human services salaries.
Eckstein said that was “irrelevant,” adding that taxpayer dollars still are being used, and said he had concerns about appearances of favoritism if Feltenberger and Brown received higher salaries.
Bill Vidonic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5621 or bvidonic@tribweb.com.
