By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

Department heads evaluating the performance of Fayette County workers have a new tool, but what the new evaluation system means in terms of salary increases is still up in the air.

After discussing the matter for more than a half hour last week, county commissioners couldn't agree on whether workers should automatically receive merit raises if they achieve designated scores in their evaluations, or whether department heads should be given discretion to mete out rewards. They unanimously approved a new evaluation method that uses measurable criteria for scoring performance.

“We need to put some authority and responsibility in the hands of the department heads,” said commission Chairman Harold Bost.

“I like quantitative measurement,” argued Commissioner Linda Wells. “That nebulous moving target at the end of the year could cause a great deal of dissention among employees.”

Bost said he believes managers, knowing that a given score results in an automatic raise and that a lesser score means a lower raise, will be tempted or pressured to cook the scores to reward employees who aren't putting out quite enough effort but who are well-liked by managers.

“I have always believed in paying the people who are producing and not those who are not producing,” he said.

But Jack Krakeel, spokesman for a group of employees and department heads who have been studying the county's compensation system, said the result of giving managers discretion will be the opposite of what Bost intends.

“We believe that the instrument we've developed reduces the ability of the manager to determine on a whim whether the employee [should receive a raise],” said Krakeel, director of the county Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

County administrator Billy Beckett agreed with Krakeel. A worker shouldn't get a raise “just because that person has done a better job of brown-nosing,” he said.

Commissioner Greg Dunn, who helped hammer out the evaluation system proposed by the employee committee, said the system should be implemented now, and commissioners could decide how to reward exceptional workers later.

The system includes an automatic cost of living increase for all workers, something the county hasn't had in the past. Instead, county budgets have included up to 5 percent per worker in merit increases, with supervisors deciding who gets the money and how much. Over time, said Dunn, that system has deteriorated into an almost automatic 5 percent pay raise, even for workers who don't meet minimum standards.

“You had to be indictable not to get a raise around here,” he said.

In the coming year, department heads will use both the old evaluation system and the new ones in reviewing employee performance, and commissioners will take another shot later at deciding how to dole out the merit increases.