Correction Chief’s Pay Hike Raises Concerns In Legislature Spalding Gets 20 Percent Increase While Employees Get No Raise At All

Idaho’s corrections director quietly has gotten a large raise - from $79,040 to $95,014 - in a year when employees in his department got no raises.

The 20.2 percent boost is raising concerns among legislators, who may vote today on the Correction Department budget.

“I will be asking questions,” said Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene. Pischner serves on the Legislature’s budget committee, which was not told about the raise during the committee’s hearing on the department’s budget.

“When we’re really holding the line on all personnel and really held the line last year, you have to kind of wonder about this,” Pischner said.

The state Board of Correction granted the raise after a closed-door session that followed its Jan. 7 meeting. The issue was not on the meeting’s agenda.

According to minutes of the meeting, the raise was granted retroactive to Jan. 1, but state records show Corrections Director Jim Spalding actually received the increase starting Dec. 28, 1997.

“It’s a very strenuous job,” said Dave Munroe, a Chevrolet dealer from Buhl who is one of three board members. “Jim is one of the most highly respected directors. … I think we’re pretty lucky to have a man of his capability.”

Munroe also said Spalding has declined previous raises. State records show his last raise was a 2.34 percent boost in October 1994. He also received a 7.5 percent raise in June of the same year.

With the raise, Spalding now makes $10,000 more than Gov. Phil Batt.

Batt, in an interview Tuesday, said, “When that authorization came through I noticed that it was a very large increase.”

Batt said he called Corrections Board Chairman John Hayden, “and he said the board had discussed it and decided it was justified.”

“I expressed some concern that they’d probably get some criticism. That doesn’t mean I think it’s bad - it’s a very big job. Perhaps a little more discussion and hearing would have been in order.”

Hayden wasn’t available for comment Tuesday, and North Idaho board member Janet Jenkins was traveling.

Mark Carnopis, spokesman for Spalding, said, “That was a board decision. They decide the salary of our director.”

The meeting minutes state that a salary increase was unanimously approved, but don’t give the amount.

Warren Lundquist, business representative for the Service Employees Union Local 687, found out about the raise a couple of weeks ago when he was doing a survey of department heads’ salary histories. “That one just jumped out at us,” he said.

Lundquist, whose union represents public employees, said state workers were upset that they got no raises this year, and that the 5 percent raises lawmakers approved for the coming year were mostly designated for merit increases rather than cost-of-living raises for everyone.

“Sixteen thousand bucks a year - I’d take the money and give it out to the workers,” he said.

Lundquist said the majority of corrections employees are near the bottom of their pay scales. “That department isn’t known for bringing people up.”

“I think the other thing that bothered me, it was kinda done sneaky,” Lundquist said. “They didn’t announce it or anything like that, they just kinda aced it through there. If he’s such a great person, they ought to come out and say this is the great job he’s doing, we gave him a $16,000 pay raise.”

According to a Nov. 19, 1997, memo from Spalding to state budget officials, the only Corrections Department employees who got raises in the current fiscal year were those who changed jobs or new employees who completed probation.

“Our employees have been concerned about the fact that other agencies were able to provide their employees with pay increases while we were unable to do so,” Spalding wrote.

In November, the Board of Correction voted to give small bonuses to department employees from unexpected retirement fund savings. Those one-time bonuses, calculated as a percentage of pay, included one for Spalding. He received more than $900.

Munroe said the Corrections Department has been without an assistant director for more than a year, creating “an incredible burden” on Spalding.

And the board found that many of those applying for the assistant’s job made more money than Spalding.

“How could you put someone in for more than the director was making? We couldn’t do that,” Munroe said.

Critics “should follow Jim around for a month, just see what he does,” Munroe said. “It’s not an easy job.”

According to the 1997 Corrections Yearbook, the average corrections director nationwide made $86,090 a year as of Jan. 1, 1997. The average in the West was $85,553.

Calls to several nearby states Tuesday showed that Washington’s secretary of corrections makes $143,232. Nevada’s corrections director makes $87,000, and Montana’s makes $70,420.

, DataTimes