Municipal Court Clerk Phelps takes city to court over salaries for her employees
NEWARK − Licking County Municipal Court Clerk Marcia Phelps’ efforts to set the salaries of her employees failed at Newark City Council, so she has taken her request to court.
Phelps filed a complaint in Licking County Common Pleas Court seeking a court order compelling the mayor and council to fund her salary requests.
“The decision (to file) was difficult only because I never wanted to have to come to this position to have them recognize what the law says,” Phelps said. “The clerk has the right to set the salary. I didn’t want to have to do this because it wastes taxpayer dollars.”
Phelps said she has the authority to give additional salary increases to her employees according to the Ohio Revised Code and a Fifth District Court of Appeals ruling, but she tried to work with the city administration.
The court filing states that a city council has the duty to fund a clerk of court's request for the salaries of the deputy clerks, and the city’s refusal is a violation of state law.
Phelps said the raises are not outrageous, but states in the complaint that she is not required to prove the request is reasonable. The city has the burden to show the request constitutes an abuse of discretion and is unreasonable, according to the complaint.
Gregory Beck, attorney with the North Canton law firm of Baker, Dublikar, Beck, Wiley & Mathews, confirmed he is representing the city of Newark in the case, but said he does not comment on pending litigation.
A Friday afternoon telephone call to Mayor Jeff Hall was not returned by presstime.
In January, before Phelps reduced her request by more than half, the mayor said additional salaries costing $150,000 would put a strain on the 2022 budget.
“The timing is very difficult on this," Hall said in January. "We worked hard all year to be fiscally responsible on the budget, and 2022 is kind of an uncertain year. That’s a sizable amount of money. That’s tremendous. The cost of it itself is very challenging. We don’t know if (tax) collections will stay solid.”
The mayor said if one department's employees get raises beyond the 4% everybody received, "you’ll get a parade of people in here."
Phelps' revised request was to increase the pay grade status of 18 Municipal Court employees. The increase would have been 11% for the office manager, 6.3% for the three senior deputy clerks and 6.5% to 6.7% for the 14 deputy clerks, according to statistics from the city auditor's office. The total increase in 2023 for all the positions, including pension costs, would be $64,141.
The employees will still get the 4% increase that all other city employees will receive, but Phelps said that just continues the inequality.
The clerk's office employees are underpaid, Phelps said, and frequently leave for better-paying jobs, such as in other city departments or municipal courts in neighboring counties. She said a survey of neighboring communities proves her point.
The request affects everyone in the office except for Phelps and the chief deputy clerk, who are covered by separate legislation.
The office manager's base salary would increase from $52,520 to $58,344, according to statistics provided by Phelps. The senior deputy clerks would change from $47,362 to $50,357. The deputy clerks 2022 salaries ranged from $42,890 to $46,592. The proposed increase would boost their pay to a range of $45,760 to $49,629.
In December, council's Personnel Committee voted 5-0 against Phelps' request for 2023. It was the second consecutive year council denied the request.
She made two modifications to her January request and council rejected a revised proposal in a 9-1 February vote. One of the arguments against her request was it came after the budget was approved. So this year, Phelps made her presentation before the budget was finalized.
City Councilman Jonathan Lang, R-5th Ward, cast the lone vote in support, saying he opposed the salary increases voted in favor of the amended ordinance after talking to the city law director about case law. City Councilman Doug Marmie, R-6th Ward, said he researched salaries in other cities and other city departments and did not see the disparity.
Phelps’ efforts date back to 2020. Legislation to increase the salaries was tabled by council on Oct. 5, 2020.
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Municipal Court Clerk Phelps takes city to court over salaries for her employees
