73 Court-Appointed Employees to Get $450,410 Raise

At last week's meeting of Northampton County Council, a pay raise totaling $450,410 was approved for 73 court-appointed employees. Thy include domestic relations conference officers, probation officers, pretrial services officers, law clerks, supervisors and even the court's accountant. The salaries were approved mostly by a 7-1 vote, with Ken Kraft dissenting and John Goffredo being absent. (You can see the numerous positions involved here.)

Earlier that week, President Judge Craig Dally told Council that the majority of these employees were at one time part of a union, but disbanded in 2019. When that happened, these employees should have been moved from union to career service PayScales, but they were never moved over as they should have been. 

Were these employees being punished for decertifying from a union? What I can say is that when they disbanded, the county initially refused to give them a retroactive 2% payraise that was slotted for career service workers that year. Two of Council's former members, both of whom just happened to be union agents, wanted to stiff these workers. And initially, they succeeded. "They made the choice to leave the union and that was their choice," said Kevin Lott at the time. He was among four Council members (including then Council member Tara Zrinski and now Council President Lori Vargo Heffner) who voted to deny these workers a pittance that would cost the county a grand total of $69,000 for 64 court-appointed professionals. 

Though this raise was eventually passed, these former union members were never moved over to the higher career service PayScales. 

"I wasn't aware of this," said Judge Dally. "Had I known, I would have come here sooner." 

Judge Dally was under the impression that these raises were going to be part of the 2026 budget, but was that never happened, either. 

This could be a misunderstanding. It could also be an administration intent on punishing employees for having left the union.  

Interestingly, the one Council member who balked at this migration was Ken Kraft, himself a former union agent. He was more than willing to let these employees stew in the wages of an expired union contract that was at least 6 years old. 

These raises are effective now, not next year. Judge Dally told Council he had the money in his budget to cover it.