Our view: Newark, Licking County must decide who they want to be compared with
Newark Fire Chief Pat Connor's departure for New Albany was a loss for the city, but it shouldn't come as a shock.
It is always disappointing when a community loses a dedicated civil servant, but it is never surprising when someone leaves to better themselves.
What is concerning is that the fire chief's leaving is just one point in an ongoing trend of local government workers seeking greener pastures in neighboring communities. Newark and Licking County must reassess how they want to be viewed.
By virtue of the size of our community and our proximity to Columbus, we are in the big leagues, but in continuing the baseball analogy, we will be a minor-league feeder community so long as we pay minor-league rates.
It is likely that Newark will never be able to match what some other communities are able to pay, but we must be blunt in saying we are not even close to paying market wages for many government positions.
For example, Newark's police chief is paid $94,631. Pickerington's chief makes $120,125 followed by $138,028 in Reynoldsburg, $140,730 in New Albany and $146,203 in Westerville.
Connor made $95,558 as Newark's fire chief and will be paid $110,000 to be an assistant chief for Plain Township, which handles New Albany. The chief in Plain Township makes $117,790, which is actually low compared to many others - $140,420 in Westerville, $141,683 in Truro Township (Reynoldsburg) and more than $153,000 in Violet Township (Pickerington.)
GROW Licking County recently had to go through a leadership transition when it lost director Nate Strum to Gahanna. It's new director, Alexis Fitzsimmons, now earns more than the economic/development directors for Reynoldsburg, Pickerington and Westerville - something that was not true before.
Newark did try to address some of these inequalities in past years by raising chief and assistant chief salaries, but even those have not kept up.
The differences are not only at the top. Government leaders for years have bemoaned the loss of firefighters, police officers and other workers to neighboring communities that can offer higher wages. Essentially we are serving as their training ground and paying for it with lost experience.
Some may argue that government workers sacrifice some financial gain for job security, good benefits and a desire to help their home communities. That may have been true decades ago. The increased speed of telecommuting thanks to the internet and actual commuting thanks to the 161 highway make it incredibly simple for people to find higher paying work outside of Licking County without really having to upset their lives.
The notion of expecting to find people who only want to serve their community - regardless if they are paid much less - is noble but unrealistic. Unfortunately, the pandemic has eroded some of the public support for our government officials, further reducing the appeal of helping your hometown.
We understand talking about public salaries is a sensitive topic, and this is especially true in Licking County where people are highly sensitive of the taxes they are paying. We have even criticized city leaders for how they went about approving pay raises.
That does not mean, however, that we should bury our heads to the issue. People should be paid based on the value they bring to an organization.
Maybe Newark and Licking County residents are OK losing talent to neighboring communities if it saves them a few dollars per year, but we believe it is a discussion we need to have.
Editorial Board
Jim Bidigare
Olivia Biggs
Tim Huffman
Paddy Kutz
Benjamin Lanka
Jody Richter
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Our view: Licking County must decide who it wants to be compared with