Warren County Board of Supervisors work session covers County pay structure, salary incentives, e-packets, new skydiving biz

The Warren County Board of Supervisors (BOS) received information during its Tuesday, July 12 work session from County staff on proposed salary increases, a new pay structure, and an electronic packets management process, and learned about a new skydiving business operating at the Front Royal-Warren County Airport.

Albert and Julie van Jaarsveld (left and right), owners of Skydive Front Royal, detailed how their new company will collaborate with the Town and County during the Supervisors’ Tuesday work session.

BOS Chair Cheryl Cullers, Vice Chair Delores Oates, and members Jerome Butler, Vicky Cook, and Walter Mabe attended the roughly two-hour work session. Cook invited Albert and Julie van Jaarsveld, owners and operators of Skydive Front Royal, to provide the BOS with an informal presentation “so that everyone understands what the company is doing” out at the airport, where she said a lot of exciting things are happening.

Albert van Jaarsveld, who’s originally from South Africa, came to the United States about 11 years ago to pursue skydiving, met his future wife, Julie, a Warren County native, and in 2018 moved back to the area from Georgia to be closer to family.

Albert van Jaarsveld has more than 12 years of experience in skydiving and holds several licenses, is a professionally rated coach and tandem master, and is an experienced resident tandem instructor. He has almost 3,000 skydives and more than 2,000 tandem jumps, which means he takes passengers with him on a skydive jump.

Skydive Front Royal for the time being has a business license to operate and will provide tandem jumps using the Sigma Dual parachute system made by United Parachute Technologies, which builds skydiving harness/container systems for sport and military use.

Van Jaarsveld said Skydive Front Royal will start operations using a Cessna 182 aircraft that will take up two tandem pairs, or two customers at a time for jumps. If the business grows, he said, they might buy a bigger plane “but we will see how it goes.”

In fact, if the business goes well over the next few years, the van Jaarsvelds would like to also start a school where they could train skydivers, he said, adding that “for now, we’ll just do tandem jumps.”

The company owners overviewed their standard operating procedures, which include a customer check-in. To go on a tandem jump, customers must have a federally issued ID, sign an extensive waiver to cover all parties involved, be 18 years or older and fit to skydive, and weigh less than 240 lbs.

Julie and Albert van Jaarsveld (above, left, and right) also told the BOS members that they are happy and excited to work with the community and the local airport to make their business a success.

“We are joining the Chamber of Commerce and will work closely with other outdoor businesses to promote Warren County and to increase the foot traffic for tourism in our town,” said Julie van Jaarsveld, who added that Skydive Front Royal also plans to provide opportunities for community fundraisers, as well as for new upcoming commercial pilots to build flying hours.

“And with our operation, we are creating several opportunities for employment,” said Albert van Jaarsveld.

The company will operate Thursday through Monday, with days off on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Pay structure, salaries, bonuses
Warren County Human Resources Manager Jane Meadows discussed proposals for a new pay structure, as well as salary increases and holiday payouts.

For instance, regarding the County’s pay structure method, it currently has a hybrid grade/step structure that is more controlled with fewer opportunities to offer employees any increases that result from time with organization and adequate performance.

“We want to move away from that and recognize performance,” Meadows told the BOS.

County staff propose moving to a pay band structure in which compensation would be focused on the position and value to the organization rather than the person in the position. This would create clearly defined upper and lower pay limits for specific positions and clear determinants — such as experience, education, performance, increased complexity, new/higher level skills — to indicate where an employee is placed within the band and the process for promotion to a higher band.

A performance-based system, said Meadows, would allow the County to better attract and retain talent, and she said the pay band system would aid in offering competitive salaries in the local market and compensate employees for the skills they bring to the County or attain while working for the County.

“Pay bands also would help address staffing challenges,” Meadows said, “and we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing for employees.”

Cullers said she was glad to hear about this proposed change.

“You’re incentivizing performance, incentivizing education — you’re incentivizing all the right things,” concurred Oates.

Regarding merit increases, County employees who demonstrate exceptional performance in the previous year based upon the annual employee performance evaluation would receive a merit increase up to 2 percent, said Meadows, who said her office realizes this is both an ongoing process that would need to be budgeted for and that it would take time to fully fund it.

Meadows also presented information on holiday time payouts and a proposed pay incentive for employees who maintain additional Advanced Life Saving (ALS) certifications.

The current policy is that holiday pay for non-exempt employees who are scheduled or called into work on designated County holidays are paid for the hours worked. County staff propose that Sheriff’s Office employees who work designated holidays receive a maximum of eight hours compensatory time classified as holiday pay, while fire department employees receive overtime payment rather than compensatory or holiday time.

Meadows explained that currently, the County has 84 employees with holiday leave balances that were not used in fiscal year 2021-2022. To pay out the accrued holiday leave balances, it would be $144,000 if paid prior to August 1, 2022.

The recommendation for the funding payment is a carryover request from FY 2021-2022 and to plan for future holiday time by revising policy to allow employees who are required to work on holidays to utilize the holiday within a 30-day period or be paid out for the time, explained Meadows.

Regarding the ALS pay incentive proposal, Warren County employees who maintain additional ALS certifications would be eligible to receive a stipend. For instance, an Advanced Level Provider would receive a $3,000 stipend, while an Intermediate Level Officer would get a $4,500 stipend, and a Paramedic Level Officer would receive a $6,000 stipend.

Warren County Fire & Rescue Chief James Bonzano (above) in May recommended the one-time incentive payments, and during the work session provided context for the request, saying that 84 percent of his department’s call volume is EMS related.

“We do fight a significant amount of fire in this community, especially with the response times and the burn times,” Bonzano said, noting that there are also an exceptionally high number of people in emergency situations being transported who “are very sick.”

Therefore, said Bonzano, “the idea of incentivizing Advanced Life Support for our providers makes a huge amount of sense.”

Without such incentives, said Meadows, the County could run into “some significant gaps” regarding recruitment and retention of qualified professionals who want to continue improving and advancing their life-saving skills, among other advanced certifications.

E-packets could save $, time
Warren County Deputy Clerk of the Board Emily Ciarrocchi presented BOS members with an update on where County staff is in the process regarding Electronic Packet Management Proposals, or e-packets.

In January, she discussed the benefits of transitioning to e-packet management for Warren County boards and commissions — such as staff time and money savings — and in collaboration with the County’s Director of Technology and the Deputy Finance Director has contacted multiple vendors that provide such solutions, watched demonstrations of the various products, and received proposals from two vendors, CivicClerk and Granicus.

Ciarrocchi overviewed the two options and said that the County’s Technology Review Committee will also be reviewing the two options and will provide a recommendation to the BOS for software and hardware.

The total cost for the CivicClerk system for one year would be $7,110. The Granicus system would cost $11,000 for one year or $11,700 for two years, increasing yearly up to almost $14,419 by year five, she said. Funding for the chosen system would be through the Technology Board line item in the County’s Asset Replacement Fund.

While no motion was needed from the Board, Ciarrocchi said staff would like the BOS to come to a consensus regarding which company/product to move forward on.

All the staff items will be on the agenda for formal consideration by the BOS at its July 19 meeting.

Watch the July 12 work session in its entirety at: https://warrencountyva.new.swagit.com/videos/176988