Questions remain over raises for Youngstown clerk of court employees

YOUNGSTOWN — While many departments in city hall downsized during the pandemic and other city employees took on more responsibilities without a pay increase, Clerk of Court Sarah Brown-Clark went a different route.

Raises were given to 11 employees, totaling $91,439.

As interim Finance Director Kyle Miasek observed, “These 11 people in the city have been rewarded like nobody else in the city has been rewarded.”

The months-old increases in the office of the Municipal Clerk of Court came to light during city council’s Monday finance committee meeting.

Of the 11 employees, eight received the salary increases Sept. 14, 2020, and three received the increase Jan. 4.

Brown-Clark said she moved people around to absorb empty positions and increase job responsibilities. The people who moved to new positions or were given additional responsibilities have worked in the department for several years and are qualified for the roles, she said.

“When you give people another job on top of their job, you’re supposed to compensate them,” Brown-Clark told Mahoning Matters.

Brown-Clark also said the changes were necessary to keep her staff in the clerk of courts office since they could be offered high salaries at other jobs.

“I have to be competitive in order to retain my staff,” Brown-Clark said.

Miasek said the finance department does not have to sign off on salary increases for clerk of court employees since it’s part of the judicial branch. The clerk of court's office sends a letter to a clerk in the finance department that explains what to pay those employees.

“Those documents were sent over staggered, and until I started developing the budget, I, along with the administration, was not aware that any of these were handed out," Miasek said.

Miasek said city departments reduced expenses, and employees took on more responsibilities without pay increases due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including many unions that agreed to delay wage increases.

Brown-Clark said her office took steps to save money during the pandemic, including placing five people on furlough, and had times where people were not working because they quarantined after being exposed to COVID-19.

“Everything was diminished or decreased because of COVID,” Brown-Clark said.

The funds used for the higher salaries via the reorganization did not exceed the clerk of court’s 2020 budget, Brown-Clark told Mahoning Matters. The total budget for the clerk of court's office for fiscal year 2020 was about $1.8 million.

Although the clerk of court's office — like other departments — spent less money due to furloughs, “we needed the savings to matriculate to the bottom line,” Miasek said. Instead, the department will start the next budget year with increased salary needs. The clerk of court's budget for 24 employee salaries was budgeted at $1,045,815 for 2020 and is estimated to be $1,095,115 for 2021, which is an increase of $49,300.

As a result, the administration is considering asking council to remove open positions on the budgeted salary in the clerk of court's office, Miasek said.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said he is not sure why Brown-Clark went this route and said she should explain why raises were given despite the city's efforts to hold the line on raises.

Brown-Clark said she could have gone through the law director and the mayor, but they have not been responsive in the past.

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, 3rd Ward, agreed with Brown-Clark that the changes in her department were within her budget purview, but she had concerns that the changes had gone undetected for some time.

“We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen across any other departments in the city,” Turner said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 4:11 AM with the headline "Questions remain over raises for Youngstown clerk of court employees."