Before retreating into executive session Thursday evening, the Wood County Board of Health was asked to
not automatically reject a raise request by union employees.
Jacque Varty, a sanitarian and union representative for about 50 health department employees, asked the
board to give employees the same support that voters gave the health department during the last
election.
"All the employees here are doing a good job getting out the good works that we do," Varty
said. "We sold this agency. We sell it everyday."
That positive public relations helped secure the levy’s passage, and showed the voters’ support of the
health department’s efforts, Varty said. And while some parts of the nation are seeing reductions in
services and salaries – that should not be automatic, he added.
"Our community told us through the levy, we aren’t like the rest of the country," Varty said,
asking the board to consider raises keeping up with the cost of living.
When employees negotiated a contract last year, they were told a wage reopener would be conducted after
the levy. The employees requested a 2 percent raise, but management said no raises were possible.
Varty asked the board to be open to wage negotiations.
"We are family members. We are citizens," he said.
Varty’s comments were met with applause from fellow health department employees in the audience – and
followed by a 75 minute executive session by the board.
No action was taken on the matter when the board reconvened.
After the meeting, Wood County Health Commissioner Pam Butler referred all questions about the wage
negotiations to the health department’s labor consultant.
Board President Dr. Ted Bowlus said after the meeting that Varty’s comments at the meeting were a form of
an unfair labor practice.
"I should have stopped him from speaking," Bowlus said.
Tom Grabarczyk, of Labor Relations Management Inc., who works as the health department’s labor
consultant, said public comments such as Varty’s are not allowed.
"Those types of activities during negotiations are prohibited by law," he said.
However, Friday morning, Bowlus said Varty’s statement did not fall on deaf ears.
"We as a board fully sympathize with what he said," Bowlus said. "But we have to be
fiscally responsible."
"It’s not like we have a closed mind as a board," he said. However, other issues must be
considered such as cuts in state funding and grants.
"Our first priority is the best interest of the public," Bowlus said.
Grabarczyk said negotiations will continue, with the focus on serving the health department, employees
and public.
"That’s our goal," he said.
During his statement to the board of health, Varty noted the costs of labor consultation to the
department. He pointed out $3,700 in recent bills for such services.
Varty said those costs are indicative of a change in the relationship between the employees and
management at the health department.
When he started working at the agency 10 years ago, "everything seemed to kind of flow together.
Everybody worked together," he said. "Over the past three years, there’s been a great
division."