County pay to go up 3 percent, maybe more

The Flathead County commissioners on Thursday approved a 3 percent pay raise for the county’s elected officials — including themselves — but stalled a decision on a cost-of-living adjustment for other county employees until next week.

Commissioner Pam Holmquist was absent, leaving Commissioners Gary Krueger and Cal Scott to handle the proposed pay raises. When Krueger made a motion to approve a 3 percent cost-of-living raise along with other pay adjustments he has proposed, Scott wouldn’t second the motion, so it died.

Scott said Krueger’s further pay proposals should be dealt with when the all three commissioners are present. And neither commissioner moved to approve the 3 percent cost-of-living raise by itself.

The county Salary Compensation Board, a state-mandated board, recently recommended the 3 percent raise for elected officials, but a comparable cost-of-living adjustment typically is applied to all county employees “out of fairness,” County Administrator Mike Pence said.

Discussion of the pay raise is expected to be scheduled for Wednesday. The county’s preliminary budget can’t be finalized until a decision is made on the cost-of-living adjustment.

In addition to the 3 percent raise, Krueger is pushing for a $1-per-hour raise for deputy county attorneys and a 25-cent-per-hour increase for most other county employees to boost wages that were tightened during the economic downturn over the past four years.

Also being considered is a pay increase of up to $5,000 annually for the county finance director.

Krueger said he wants $450,000 to go toward salary increases this year. Of that amount, the cost-of-living adjustment increase totals $213,000. The county needs to begin compensating employees for belt-tightening done a few years ago amid the recession, he said.

In 2008, for example, the commissioners approved a 1.9 percent pay raise, which was just half of the recommended 3.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment. The next two years, no pay raises were given. The rationale of the commissioners at that time was to freeze wages as a show of solidarity with county residents feeling the pinch of the recession, Pence said.

It’s unclear how the other two commissioners feel about the additional pay increases Krueger is proposing. At their retreat earlier this year, they discussed conducting a wage and salary study.

The last such study was done in 2006, after which the county “gave some pretty significant increases,” Pence said.

Krueger said he doesn’t want to wait for a study, which could take a couple of years. He pointed to the county’s sizable cash reserves as evidence the county can well afford to make his recommended pay adjustments.

“I believe in being fair with staff,” he said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.