Schuylkill County Commissioners are ready to hire another new Human Resources Director on Wednesday.
And while some County employees argue for modest raises, the Commissioners seem to have no problem backing the truck up for people in this position.
According to the Agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, the Commissioners are going to vote on hiring Anthony Kern, currently of Elizabethtown, at an annual salary of $90,000.
That marks a significant hike in the salary for the HR Director position at the Courthouse.
Should the Commissioners approve hiring Kern, he’ll be making a lot more than the previous 3 permanent HR Directors for the County.
According to our search of records kept by the County and other online sources, here are the salaries (at a certain point in time) for the previous HR Directors at the Courthouse:
Deborah Twigg was making $65,961 in 2019. Twigg resigned in 2020 and was replaced by Heidi Zula.
Zula was making $79,000 at the time of her hire, which represented a nearly 20% increase over Twigg’s 2019 salary.
Zula left the job in 2022 and was replaced by Andrea Whelan. Whelan was hired at a salary of $80,000.
Now, Kern is set to make $90,000 for the same job. That’s 12.5% more than Whelan and 36.4% more than Twigg made in 2019.
The High Cost of HR
Spending a lot of money on Human Resources is becoming commonplace at the Courthouse. Getting one of these people to stick around for more than the proverbial cup of coffee is another issue.
In the interim of Twigg, Zula and Whelan’s departure, the County has contracted with a third-party HR services firm called Hubric Resources, of Wyomissing, at some pretty astronomical rates.
Most recently, the County was paying Hubric $225 for its services. In between Zula and Whelan, the County paid the firm $215 per hour. And between Twigg and Zula, the County was paying $125 per hour to Hubric.
Even More Costs
These costs are high but it’s nothing compared to the de facto HR the County has had to hire as a result of a settlement with the Dept. of Justice over claims it ignored harassment claims by employees for years and then retaliated against employees for speaking out about alleged workplace injustices.
The County was forced to hire a DOJ-approved client to create anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policies. And it’s on that person or persons to make sure these policies are implemented and employees trained on them.
That’s pretty much the job description of an HR professional but now Kern will be forced to work alongside them as the policies are crafted and implemented.
However, Kern could only dream of getting paid what this consulting firm is raking in by providing these sevices … $450 per hour. The County also had to hire another firm to conduct HR investigations filed by County employees. The cost of that service is $380 per hour.
RELATED:
- The Price Of HR Services Keeps Going Up And Schuylkill County Is Really Good At Finding Out
- Schuylkill County Re-Hiring Third-Party HR Firm At Grossly Inflated Rate
- Schuylkill County Will Pay $125 An Hour To Interim HR Firm
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