COPLEY — At the Feb. 28 Copley Township Board of Trustees meeting, township attorney David Firestine reported his findings of a review of a wage increase for a Fiscal Office employee following a request by trustees to look into the matter.
Firestine said Fiscal Officer Linda Peiffer hired an assistant in early 2021 at a tentative rate of $21 per hour. At that time, the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) permitted township fiscal officers to hire assistants and establish a wage only upon the approval of trustees, and trustees approved a $15.25 per hour wage for the assistant.
Firestine added that on Oct. 1, 2021, a change in the ORC gave fiscal officers the authority to set a wage without approval of trustees, as long as the expenditure was within the fiscal office budget approved by trustees. He said following that ORC change, Peiffer increased her assistant’s salary to $22 per hour.
Firestone also said that in January Peiffer was asked why she did not inform trustees of the wage increase.
“She replied that she, quote, ‘did not have to,’” Firestine said. “When I asked how she found out about the ORC change, [Peiffer] said an audit manager from the [Ohio] State Auditor’s office told her the law was changing.”
At the Feb. 28 meeting, Trustee Bruce Koellner asked Peiffer why she did not inform the board of the “42 percent pay increase” [from the approved $15.25 per-hour wage].
“I didn’t have to. It was in the budget,” Peiffer replied. “We protect the people’s money [in the Fiscal...
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