Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport Authority’s $3,500 bonuses questioned

 

 

 

Posted: Saturday, November 16, 2013 4:48 pm

 

 

Posted on November 16, 2013

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  by Matthew Umstead

 

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A decision this month to give a $3,500 bonus to each of the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport Authority’s three employees, including the agency’s part-time secretary, is being questioned.

“Last year at this time, we didn’t have enough money to buy a flag,” said Richard Talbott, who was the lone airport authority board member to vote against the expenditure.

Talbott said last week he wasn’t convinced the $10,500 in bonuses were legal, and also questioned the use of money considering the airport authority’s budget is little more than $235,000.

Berkeley County Council attorney Norwood Bentley III said Friday that a recent opinion by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey stated that bonuses are legal for government officials whose salaries are not specified by state law or ordinance.

“I used to think differently,” Bentley said.

In an opinion issued Oct. 1, Morrisey told state Auditor Glen B. Gainer III that a state constitutional ban on extra compensation only applies to salaries of public officers that have been “definitively fixed or prescribed by law, either by the constitution of the state or by statute.”

Airport Authority Chairman Richard “Rick” Wachtel acknowledged the airport has experienced a cash crunch for a number of years, but also added that the airport’s employees had not received a pay raise in five years.

“While you never want to be living dollar to dollar, you certainly want to take care of your employees,” Wachtel said.

The airport manager was paid about $36,200 in salary, not including benefits received in the previous fiscal year, which ended July 1, according to budget documents.

The airport authority maintenance employee was paid about $24,300, and the secretary received about $9,300 in compensation, also not including benefits.

Altogether, the airport authority’s three employees’ salary and benefits totaled $108,799 for the 2012-13 year.

The money that Wachtel described as a one-time supplement in pay was taken from about $17,000 in reimbursement funding that the airport received for a hangar purchase.

“It was the right thing to do,” said Wachtel, who confirmed that all of the airport authority members, except Talbott, voted in favor of the bonuses.

The other airport authority members are George Cornwell, Steve Cox, Maria Lorensen James Reuss and Hunter Wilson. Attorney Mike Keller serves as the authority’s legal counsel.

In voting against the bonuses, Talbott questioned whether use of the reimbursement funding was proper. He also questioned the fairness of giving the same bonus amount to both full- and part-time staff.

“I’m not debating whether they deserve it or not,” Talbott said.

He said bonuses typically are given to employees in the private sector when a company is enjoying financial success and based on work performance guidelines.

Berkeley County Councilwoman Elaine C. Mauck, who attends airport authority meetings as the council’s representative, anticipates the bonus issue will resurface when the airport authority makes its annual funding request early next year.

“I’m not happy with it,” Mauck said.

Matthew Umstead is a reporter for The Herald-Mail. He can be reached via email at matthewu@herald-mail.com.

http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/tri_state/west_virginia/eastern-west-virginia-regional-airport-authority-s-bonuses-questioned/article_c88677f2-4f08-11e3-8524-0019bb30f31a.html

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