Fourth District Representative Kuknyo rejects approving budget indicating significant concern with not awarding employee salary increases using merit
Fourth District Governing Board Member Mr. Chris Kukyno
Fourth District Representative Chris Kuknyo voted to reject approval of the Community College’s $92.9 million budget at the Board’s May meeting. The budget included a 3% across the board increase for faculty and staff. He suggested several reasons for his “no” vote on the budget with a primary one being the absence of using merit for employee salary increases.
Mr. Kuknyo indicated that while he opposed the current request for an across the board employee salary increase, he was not against increasing individual wages based on merit.
He also lauded the College for its transparency in providing the public with information and with president Lisa Rhine’s work. However, in addition to the merit issue, he believe that the time was not right for a salary increase given the staff received one in July during the pandemic and many members of the community were still financially struggling.
Mr. Kuknyo noted that the County primary tax rate was not increased by the Board this year and he wanted to keep it as low as possible in the future.
You may view a video clip below of Mr. Kuknyo’s speech to the Governing Board at its May meeting below. You may view the entire proceedings by going to the Governing Board website.