Several Canton City employees will get a raise, ranging from 6% to 21%. Here's why.

Kelli Weir, Canton Repository
Updated ·3 min read

CANTON – Some city employees will receive raises above the standard 3% salary increases given to city nonunion workers at the beginning of the year.

Council members, who fast-tracked the legislation for the raises, on Monday approved salary increases ranging from 6% to 21% for seven manager-level employees and a 13% pay increase for three assistant prosecutors. Ward 9 Councilman Frank Morris III voted against the raises. No council member explained their vote during the meeting.

Service Director John Highman Jr. said the raises for most of the manager-level employees are necessary to retain dedicated and effective employees in hard-to-fill positions. He said a few of the increases are to correct salaries that are lower than city positions with similar levels of responsibility.

Law Director Jason Reese said he sought the increase for the three assistant prosecutors in an effort to retain them. He said the 13% increase would bring the salaries in line with similarly experienced attorneys working at the public defender’s office and the county prosecutor’s office.

“In the last several years, we’ve lost several prosecutors to other public employers primarily because of the significant disparity in pay,” Reese told Council in a memo. “As a result, we risk losing prosecutors faster than we can hire and train them.”

The department has only two of its four courtroom prosecutor positions filled.

The employees receiving raises are:

  • Deborah Houdeshell, superintendent of the Water Reclamation Facility, whose annual salary will increase from $114,843 to $126,105, a 10% increase. Houdeshell was hired in 2017, city payroll records show.

  • Dylan Peoples, water department facilities engineer, whose annual salary will increase from $91,986 to $100,000, a 9% increase. Peoples was hired in 2020.

  • Heather Locke-Williams, deputy payroll manager, whose salary will increase from $77,289 to $90,946, an 18% increase. Locke-Williams was hired in 1995.

  • Christina Skondras, director of human resources, whose annual salary will increase from $81,920 to $87,500, a 7% increase. Skondras was hired in 2021.

  • Kathryn Wise, assistant director of purchasing, whose annual salary will increase from $62,126 to $75,000, a 21% increase. Wise was hired in 2009.

  • Shadi Smiley, police department fiscal manager, whose annual salary will increase from $68,204 to $72,500, a 6% increase. Smiley was hired in 2020.

  • Katie Lukosavich, assistant prosecutor, whose salary will increase from $54,637 to $62,000, a 13% increase. Lukosavich was hired in 2020.

  • Jonathan Cope, assistant prosecutor, whose salary will increase from $54,637 to $62,000, a 13% increase. Cope was hired in 2021.

  • Luke Hamilton, assistant prosecutor, whose salary will increase from $54,637 to $62,000, a 13% increase. Hamilton was hired in 2022.

  • Hannah Smith, police department crime analyst, whose salary will increase from $44,609 to $50,000, a 12% increase. Smith was hired in 2021.

The raises are not retroactive. Council last year approved a 3% raise, effective Jan. 1, for council and nonunion city employees.

According to their union contracts, employees covered by the two city American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees units received a 2% raises this year, while police officers and firefighters received a 3% raise.

Reach Canton Repository staff writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton City approved salary increases for 10 city employees