Village workers receive bonuses

4/19/2006

Doing a job well pays off in Walbridge, as half of the village s employees recently received a bonus in their checks.

Three years ago, village officials implemented an employee performance appraisal process, in which each of the village s 12 full-time employees and eight part-time employees is reviewed and rated by his or her supervisors, Mayor Dan Wilczynski said.

Supervisors rate how well the employees do their jobs on a scale of 1 to 5.

A 1 rating means an employee is consistently below expectations, a 3 means the employee meets expectations, and a 5 means the employee is consistently above expectations.

No employee scored lower than a 3 for his or her job performance in 2005, and 10 employees scored higher.

That s pretty much typical, the mayor said. Most of your employees are going to be doing their jobs just as you envision.

A 4 rating gives an employee an additional 2 percent of his or her previous year s salary as a bonus, and a perfect 5 rating gives an employee a 4 percent bonus.

This year s bonuses, which village officials allocate from the general fund, range from $73 for one part-time employee to $1,360 for one full-time employee.

The total bonus money awarded to the 10 village employees this year was $3,856.

Last year, the village awarded $5,396 in bonuses.

Steve Smith, village administrator and head of the maintenance department, was given the highest bonus, $1,360, because of the tens of thousands of dollars he has saved the village, the mayor said.

Instead of calling a contractor, Mr. Smith and those in the maintenance department completed several projects, including renovating the council chambers which could have cost up to $10,000 and salting the streets differently to save money.

Two others in the maintenance department were given bonuses this year. Frank Stone received $200, while Tom Welch was given $132.

Fiscal officer and tax commissioner Patty Crawford was given an extra $1,238 this year, and Delores Bleau, who works part-time in the finance department, was given $120.

Full-time police Officers Steve Campbell, Russ Hoff, and Kurt Schober each received an extra $128.

Part-time clerk of council Laurie Shinew received a bonus of $73, and Pam Klotz, the mayor s court clerk, received $349.

Council President Ron Liwo said he was satisfied with the number of employees who were meeting above-average expectations.

Everybody is at least working up to their expectations, and there are many of them [who] are exceeding them, he said.

We need to continue to challenge them to do better and raise the bar to get them to continue to exceed. I think that s important that the employees are challenged and rewarded if they do in fact exceed the expectations with the administration, Mr. Liwo said.

Mr. Wilczynski said village officials plan to conduct performance reviews quarterly, but the performance review at the end of each year will be scored and count toward the bonus check that will be given once a year.

This has been a great year for us, Mr. Wilczynski said.

Everybody recognizes what they need to do and did at least their job, he said.