Commissioners ask council to preserve staff raises they self‑funded after cutting headcount

County commissioners told the Delaware County Council on Thursday that they cut positions and combined duties to cover employee raises and asked that those raises remain in the budget for 2026.

Stephen Brand, speaking for the commissioners’ office, said commissioners eliminated several heads through attrition and combined roles in engineering and highway to free funds for pay increases. The commissioners asked the council to preserve raises they said were already self‑funded by reducing headcount.

Why it matters: payroll and benefits are the largest recurring cost in the county budget. Commissioners said the personnel moves — including moving some exempt executive roles from a 32.5‑hour schedule to salaried, 40‑hour expectations — were intended to keep salary offers market competitive while avoiding new recurring hires.

Commissioners and staff described specific personnel changes. The human resources role budgeted as a director was reclassified to “human resources leader” with a requested salary increase to $64,700 in order to attract hiring candidates. Commissioners said they delayed new hires, consolidated two supervision roles in engineering and highway into one combined role, and reduced support headcount to pay planned raises.

Building superintendent Don Chambers urged council to keep the raises in place. Chambers described his operations staff as having little recent pay increases and said morale depends on retention. Chambers also offered an individual concession: during discussion he volunteered to forgo an educational/military incentive payment as a mechanism to redirect a portion of his compensation to subordinates if council wanted to reallocate limited dollars; county staff said such requests would require payroll and auditor action to implement.

Council response and next steps: council members said they support department efforts to find efficiencies but that 2026 budget decisions must be made consistently across all tax funds and departments. Several councilors expressed support for revisiting raises if the county’s final revenue picture allowed it, but the council asked county staff to return budgets to 2025 baseline levels for now while staff complete consolidated calculations. The council’s guidance was not a final vote; staff will bring updated totals back to the council for final action before budget adoption.

Speakers recorded on this topic included Stephen Brand (county commissioner's office), Jenna Kalin (executive assistant), Commissioner Henry (commissioner), Don Chambers (building superintendent) and Elizabeth (auditor’s staff). No final council appropriation was adopted at the hearing; the council directed staff to calculate final budget figures and return with updated totals.

Ending: Councilors said they will revisit raises and staffing after receiving consolidated revenue and expense calculations; commissioners said they will provide documentation showing how the raises were funded.