Personnel study to look at Delaware County positions and pay

An earlier version of this story had said a memorial tribute to the late Metropolitan Plan Commission Executive Director Marta Moody was going to be this weekend. It occurred last weekend. We regret the error.

MUNCIE, Ind. − Delaware County is assessing where it stands with its employment positions and salaries after nearly 20 years.

The assessment comes after an acknowledgement that Marta Moody, longtime longtime Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Plan Commission executive director, who died in January, was underpaid.

The county council approved paying $96,640 to Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele & Associates to conduct an analysis of compensation and to develop new job descriptions for county employees.

"I hope we can keep it updated so that we don't have to keep it updated," Pam McCammon, human resources director for the county, told council Tuesday. "... In the case of Marta, I don't know if I'm talking out of turn or not, but she was totally underpaid."

Moody had worked 44 years in the planning department and 36 years as its executive director. Her salary, not including longevity pay, was about $48,000 a year when she died earlier this year.

McCammon said Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele looked at the surrounding counties to Delaware County and came up with a salary the plan commission can work with in finding a new plan director, McCammon said.

"Each position at the county will be evaluated and given to the council," she said.

Council President Jessica Piper said county officials have often talked about doing an analysis, usually at budget time. The last job and salary analysis for the county was done nearly 20 years ago in 2004.

Piper said that going forward, the county will develop a procedure for changing job descriptions in an orderly process.

Council member Bill Hughes said the analysis work will provide a "living document" that the county can use going forward.

McCammon said that no salary would be downgraded in the study.

"That's not going to happen," she said. "No one is going to be paid less than what they are making now."

The effort had been approved by county commissioners, who are paying for the analysis out of their budget.

Larger expenditures for jury trials

In other business, Court Administrator Emily Anderson told council to prepare to see larger expenditures for jury trials in the coming months.

In 2022, the county spent about $60,000 on jury trials, she said. The county is on trend to spend about that amount or more. As of mid-May, the county had spent about $35,000 this year on jury trials, and fees paid to jurors for serving are doubling.

Search is on: Effort underway to find new metropolitan plan director

She said the revenue she projected to be available for jury trials will be about $117,000, while she anticipates expenses to be $122,238. The courts are still catching up from the pandemic with delayed jury trials, and that there are simply a lot of jury trials, including murder trials. Last year, there were 13 murder cases in the county going before the courts.

Also, she said, WiFi in the courtrooms is not consistently working, which is creating issues for the trials.

"I have been given the runaround on why it's not working," Anderson said. "Why the WiFi portion doesn't work. Nobody has come and given me a direct answer ... Jury trials are disrupted so often that it's honestly an injustice to that trial because you have jurors that are interrupted in the middle of evidence."

She said she is not asking for the council to do anything at this moment, but Anderson wanted them to be aware of the situation.

Criticism of Ryan Webb, who announced he identifies as a woman

Also on Tuesday, two people came to council meeting to criticize the council and member Ryan Webb for well-publicized comments he made on social media in April saying that he now identifies as a minority woman. Webb announced that he specifically identifies as a lesbian Native American woman, but would not be switching his pronouns to reflect the change.

Charlize Jamison, a transgender female, and others have said Webb is mocking transgender people. Earlier this month, Webb appeared on the conservative Fox News show "Jesse Watters Primetime" to discuss the matter.

Jamison told council Tuesday that Webb's claims have reached around the world and that local people who were responding to a local issue, including minors, wound up on television across the globe.

"I think that's inexcusable," she said.

Ryan Webb: Delaware County Council member who says he's now a 'woman of color' appears on FOX News

Jamison said she was still waiting for a statement from the council about Webb's actions but has heard nothing.

"Makes me wonder what would have happened if the person involved here was mocking a Black person or mocking a person of another nationality or maybe a disabled person," she said. "Would you be taking the same approach? Nothing. Silence. I'm going to say I'm right on this. You've been advised by your attorneys to say nothing."

She said attorneys can give bad advice and the council's silence signals approval of events of the past month.

Cameron Grubbs also spoke to the council and has not heard any comment from council members about Webb's comments.

None of the council members responded during the meeting. When asked later in the week if the council would issue a statement or comment about the matter, Piper declined comment.

David Penticuff is a reporter for the Star Press. He can be reached at dpenticucff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delaware County to study salaries; Ryan Webb criticized by public