The Rock Island County Board on Tuesday approved two union contracts that will give raises to 42 employees.

The board voted 17-5, with one abstention, to give a 2 percent raise for each year of a three-year agreement to 14 highway department workers who are members of Teamsters Local 371.

Board members also voted 17-4, with two abstentions, in favor of a two-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Local 935, which represents 28 probation officers. The agreement will pay raises of 3 percent in the first year and 1 percent in the second year.

The FOP contract is negotiated between the union and the Illinois Supreme Court as required by state rules, according to Rock Island County Board member John Brandmeyer, D-Rock Island.

Board member Mike McColl, R-Moline, voted against the union contracts and said he thought the county's negotiating committee put the interests of the unions ahead of the taxpayers.

The committee consists of Mr. Brandmeyer, D-Rock Island, Ken "Moose" Maranda, D-Milan, and Virgil Dueysen, D-East Moline. All three have union backgrounds, Mr. McColl said, creating what he views as a possible conflict of interest.

Mr. Maranda was a member of Teamsters Local 371, but he said he never worked "side by side" with the union's current negotiating team.

Board member Lauren Loftin, D-Rock Island, used to be on the county's negotiating committee and also has been an active member of the United Auto Workers union. She said she was "insulted" by Mr. McColl's assertion that having a labor background meant she didn't properly represent the interests of the county and her constituents in negotiations with county unions.

Another board member, Steve Meersman, D-Moline, asked for a show of hands to see how many members had been involved in collective bargaining outside of their roles with the county. Several hands were raised, including Mr. McColl's, who is retired from a job at East Moline Correctional Center.

The resolution of the contracts with the highway workers and probation officers means the county has finished negotiations with all collective bargaining units whose contracts expired at the end of 2011.

In other business Tuesday, Dorothy Armstrong, a Democrat, was sworn in to fill out the unexpired term of her late husband, William "Bill" Armstrong, who died April 12. Ms. Armstrong, a former Moline alderwoman, will not run for the District 8 seat in the Nov. 6 election.