Fiscal Court Approves Lesser Pay Raise For Parks & Rec Program Admin After First Vote Fails

Darren Doyle, story:
The discussion from the previous Edmonson County Fiscal Court meeting continued in today's meeting regarding a proposed pay raise by Judge Executive Wil Cannon for Parks and Rec Program Administrator John Kiernan. 

A vote was postponed during the last meeting after a lengthy discussion where two magistrates, Joe Durbin and Mark Woosley, questioned the pay raise, with Magistrate Durbin opposing it.

Kiernan was unable to attend today's meeting due to his full-time job; however, he prepared a statement that was read by Judge Executive Wil Cannon.

The Edmonson Voice obtained the prepared statement from Mr. Kiernan, which is published in its entirety below:

​I’d like to make a statement as part of the discussion that occurred at the last fiscal court meeting regarding the proposed raise for my position. I’d also like to respond to comments that were made on social media that were misleading to the public.

Since I was hired as the Parks and Rec’s Program Administrator, I’ve received an overwhelming amount of support. Community involvement and cooperation has allowed our programs accomplish a lot in the nine months I’ve been here. Numbers in every program have increased, contrary to some comments. Thankfully, I’ve been able to build a good relationship with boards, coaches, referees, umpires, parents and kids. As program administrator, we’ve had no major setbacks or negative incidents.

I’ve heard more than one magistrate, business owner, and other county officials say that events and activities need to be promoted in Edmonson County, especially for our children, and that we need to be doing more to see that our kids have something positive to do here. My opinion is this: instead of talking about it, let’s just do it—and so much of these things are already available here as you’ll see by a short recap of some of our recent events, made possible by Edmonson County Parks and Rec:

My first event in this position was the Easter Egg hunt where I worked diligently to not only properly publicize the event, but to also team up with many volunteers which resulted in an estimated 400 kids, a 60% increase from previous years. We were able to purchase several prizes for this event and stayed well below budget.

Freedom Fest 2018 was another huge success. We had more events for the kids, thanks to volunteers, which resulted in more people to stay after the baseball/softball award ceremony. Instead of bringing in food trucks and other vendors, we cooked and served our own concessions. My brother-in-law and his father cooked all the food for Freedom Fest, for free. Again, I put the plan together to publicize the event and coordinate with our local media partner. The turnout was our biggest ever. Months before Freedom Fest took place, I created a plan to reach out to local businesses which resulted in sponsorships. With many new sponsors on board this year, the cost of the fireworks was covered. This allowed us to host a huge community event at no cost to the public while actually putting money back into the program.

Halloween on the Square was our most recent event. There was an estimated amount of 4000 trick or treaters, which is by far the largest total ever. The only costs our Parks and Rec incurred at this event were for drinks distributed; however, we stayed well under budget on this event—which is another free event for the community that drew thousands to one place in Edmonson County, Kentucky.

It was disheartening to read on social media that at least one of our magistrates thought our participation in our sports programs had declined. This is simply not true, in fact, they are all up. In my opinion, it’s irresponsible for an elected official to make that type of statement without being sure of those numbers.

There was almost a 10% increase in the amount of kids that participated in our baseball and softball programs from the previous year. Soccer showed the biggest increase with more than a 30% increase from 2017. Basketball was restructured, but there was certainly no decline in the percentage. The board no longer allows 7th graders to play because there is now a 7th grade middle school team. Preschoolers are also no longer allowed because the board felt 4 years old is too young for basketball.

When I first took this position, one of the first things I wanted to do was pay off the debt for the tractor. I proposed to the Tax Rec Committee to use some of the funds to do so and with their approval, we were able to pay off the 4-year debt 3 years early.

Major improvements have been made this year to the falling backstops at HWY 70 that had become a safety hazard. Parks and Rec, along with the Baseball/Softball board, was able to fund this project, which cost more than $10,000. 

I can assure you that I spend more than 24hrs per week working with four different boards to see these programs work as efficiently as possible in our Parks and Rec Office.

I do this job because I love this county, the parks and kids. I want it to be better than ever and I work hard to make that happen. The program director before me held a full time position with a salary more than double of mine—which included insurance and benefits. I’m currently doing that same job for half the pay.

At the last meeting, part of the discussion focused on being fair to all county employees. I was told that all county employees get a raise after six months yet I’ve held this position for nine months with no raise. This position was compared to other offices, but I feel it was an unfair comparison. While we have a great road department, along with other county offices, and they are willing to work with the parks whenever needed, basically all those positions are full time with full time benefits.

Obviously, many of them use personal phones while on the job; however, it’s my only means of communication for my county job.  I didn’t ask for the $50 a month reimbursement on my cellphone bill; however, that was offered to me and agreed on by fiscal court. The same applies with the county truck. I never asked for a vehicle, but rather, it was bought for the parks to be used for parks business. This is not a vehicle I drive unless I am working for parks. Which, again—was approved by the fiscal court.
 
I doubt there is any other county employee that works 20-30 hours more per week than for what they are compensated. I doubt there is another county employee whose spouse volunteers countless hours. I doubt there’s another county employee whose kids work weekly, picking up trash, moving bleachers, drying fields and spend endless hours at their parents’ job because their parents are that dedicated to bettering the county.

My wife and I probably volunteer as many hours as for those that I’m paid, and we’ve spent our own money to ensure that some less fortunate kids are able to play. This county has many great employees, I won’t take that away from anyone. The difference between them and me… they get their raises and most of them are full
time with benefits. Again, that’s why I feel it’s unfair to make those comparisons with their jobs and mine.
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Thank you for allowing me to respond to last month’s discussion. I don’t wish to argue or keep this conversation going. I’ll continue to do the job I agreed to, whether I’m given a raise or not. It’s all about Edmonson County kids, and that’s the one and only reason I do this job."

Screenshot of comment thread to which Kiernan referred.

Magistrate Mark Woosley took issue with some of the comments and responded: first to the references made to Woosley's comments on social media, which were part of the comment thread on the Edmonson Voice Facebook page.

"As far as the comments go on social media, I just put out there the information I had been given," Woosley said. "So I don't appreciate it being...that I was being disparaging. And I said, I made the comment, that evidently I'd been misinformed. That being said, parks and rec is for our children, not for the people running parks and rec." 

Woosley went on to say that the each league is run by a board and that those boards are the ones responsible for the operation of each of their respective leagues, not the program director. He also noted that if the county is spending over $50K in Parks and Rec salaries (which include Kiernan's and Park Director A.B. Webb's), then the $118K total parks budget is already in a bind.

"Mr. Kiernan is doing his job, and I think he's doing a good job at it," said Woosley. "But he may be taking on more, or doing more than he's supposed to be doing-- getting paid for."

Magistrate Durbin spoke regarding Kiernan's job description. Durbin said that Kiernan is apparently spending lots of his time on the phone with parents when the boards are supposed to be doing that.

"Again, where do we draw the line?" Durbin asked. "He's saying he didn't ask for the phone, he didn't ask for the truck, so where did that come from?"

Cannon said that recommendation for the phone came from the Judge Executive's office, when it was determined that the Parks and Rec landline was not being used, but cost the county $130 per month.  

Durbin then questioned Kiernan's overall numbers for the events in the prepared statement.

​"Donald Trump said he got the largest inaugural gathering that ever was, nobody knows if that's so or not," said Durbin. "There's a lot of controversy over that. These attendants of these things (parks and rec events) maybe they're that big, maybe they're not, I don't know."

Durbin said he thought the county was simply overspending, based on the total budget amount.

Cannon pointed out that both the truck and phone allowance were voted on during the same meeting in July, and both passed unanimously.

After clarifying the raise request in today's meeting, Judge Cannon asked for a motion to increase Kiernan's pay from $12.24/hr for 1199 hours per year to a salaried position in the amount of $15,888. Cannon said the number was roughly based on a dollar per hour raise.

Magistrate Clark Wood suggested that the court wait until February, where Kiernan will have been an employee for one year, but Cannon disagreed because he said other similar situations called for a raise at the six-month mark. After County Attorney Greg Vincent asked for clarification of the motion, it was made by Magistrate Edd Rich, seconded by Johnny Brooks to increase Kiernan's pay to $15,888 per year. The roll call vote resulted as follows:  Magistrates Johnny Brooks and Edd Rich both voted YES. Magistrates Buck Simmons, Clark Wood, Joe Durbin, and Mark Woosley voted NO. The motion did not pass.

Judge Cannon then asked for another motion; this time that the raise be in a lesser amount of $15,288, and Magistrates Rich and Brooks made the motion. During another roll call vote, Magistrates Simmons, Rich, Brooks, and Durbin voted YES, and Magistrates Clark and Woosley voted NO. The motion passed, and now Kiernan will be considered a salaried employee that is retirement-exempt. 

The pay increase is $612.24 per year, or roughly $51 additional per month.
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