By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Wood County Veterans Services Commission voted Tuesday afternoon to hire an outside firm to survey salaries in the county veterans assistance office.
The decision came after the Wood County Commissioners wrote a letter earlier this month questioning the current annual salary of $150,217 for Executive Director Mary Hanna.
Hanna, who plans to retire at the end of this year, has filed claims for veterans’ benefits in Wood County since 1974.
“With me leaving, this is really the time to do this,” Hanna said during Tuesday’s meeting.
The county commissioners have objected to her salary – which is higher than any other Wood County official, and higher than any other veterans director in the state.
The veterans commission undertook a salary survey five years ago – but it was done by a member of the commission, who compared Hanna’s work and experience with other county veterans directors.
“We did it internally,” former VSC President David Ridenour said, noting the commission saw no reason to bring in someone from the outside to perform the assessment.
“She’s an outstanding director and service officer,” Ridenour said of Hanna. “She’s been very innovative.”
Hanna has been at the forefront of efforts to establish telehealth counseling for veterans and mental health counseling, and she was instrumental in the design of the VA clinic in Toledo, Ridenour said.
“She has been doing some trail blazing,” Ridenour said. “Her influence hasn’t been just in Wood County.”
Salaries of Veterans Services Commission employees are set by their boards. According to the Ohio Revised Code, county commissioners can review, but not revise the salaries set by the VSC boards.
That authority rests solely with the veterans board – not the county commissioners, said James Brinker, current president of the Wood County Veterans Services Commission.
“Their job is to make sure the funds are there to cover our appropriations,” Brinker said of the county commissioners. “We go around every year with them about this.”
The county commissioners understand the salary is not theirs to set. But when it comes to taxpayers’ money, County Administrator Andrew Kalmar said it is their right to question Hanna’s salary of $150,217.
The amount is at least $20,000 more than any other veterans services director in the state – including the largest populated county, Cuyahoga, where the director’s salary is $127,031. The salaries of veterans directors in counties of similar size to Wood County include $62,736 in Richland County, $56,135 in Wayne County, and $75,305 in Clark County.
“The Wood County VSC Director is likely paid two times the amount of any other director in a county our size,” the letter stated. “And yet, the VSC Board keeps giving wage increases.”
The letter also notes that Hanna’s annual salary is the highest of any Wood County officials, and has increased by more than $50,000 just since 2015.
But Brinker said those comparisons are apples and oranges. Hanna has 47 years of experience, has multiple degrees and holds positions of prestige with several veterans organizations. She also performs two positions in the office, as executive director and VSC service officer.
“I have loved this job since the day I was hired in 1974,” Hanna stated. “It is my calling and passion. I knew this would be the job that I would retire from. No matter how much I do or have done for our veterans I could never do as much for them as they have done for me and my spiritual growth.”
In the last 20 years, the county veterans office has helped secure more than $393 million in federal VA claims for local veterans, which number over 15,000.
“Their life stories have inspired me for 47 years to keep working harder to secure benefits and provide more services for them,” Hanna said. “I have been privileged to witness their courage to overcome debilitating war injuries, their dedication to their families, to their fellow veterans and to our country.”
Hanna served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War as a medical specialist stationed in the Philippines, handling wounded soldiers being air evacuated from Vietnam. Last year, she was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.
Hanna’s office assists veterans in obtaining benefits such as vocational rehabilitation, outpatient medical care, pensions, compensation, VA home loans, Agent Orange or nuclear radiation exposure benefits, military honors detail for burials, education and training, nursing home and assisted living, insurance, hospitalization, alcohol and drug dependence treatment, veteran identification cards, transportation to VA medical centers, and employment assistance.
“The county commissioners can attack us all they want,” Brinker said. “We’re here to help the veterans. We’re not here to nickel and dime.”
But the commissioners said their interest is also in serving the veterans.
“We have every respect for veterans, and gladly appropriate county tax dollars to fund services for them,” the letter from the county commissioners concludes. “Year after year, the county commissioners have watched the salary of your executive director grow to the extreme level of today. How do you as a public board justify this to the taxpayers of Wood County?”
The veterans commission also voted Tuesday to send a response to the letter from the county commissioners. Brinker will write the letter and submit it to other members – Steve Benner, Doug Dariano, Joe Fawcett and Tom Uhler – for review before it goes to the county commissioners.
