By Brian Wright | Casa Grande Dispatch
After nearly six years, Pinal County employees finally will see a pay raise.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Wednesday to implement an across- the-board 2.5 percent salary increase to employees during the fourth quarter of the 2013-14 fiscal year, effective in April.
Board Vice Chairman Anthony Smith of Maricopa, who voted against the motion, said he supported a 2.5 per- cent salary increase, but only if it was performance-based.
For a board dominated by Republicans — four of its five members are GOP — the vote seemed to go against their core beliefs.
Chairman Steve Miller of Casa Grande, Todd House of Apache Junction and Cheryl Chase of San Tan Valley — said it was a special circumstance, considering how long county employees had gone without a raise.
Pete Rios of Dudleyville, the board’s lone Democrat, was always in favor of an across-the-board increase because he said merit-based raises often become a popularity contest instead of based on real performance results.
The supervisors were given two choices — Option A was a merit-based increase, and Option B was an across-the-board cost-of-living increase.
