Chase County commissioners on Oct. 13 heard a request from the county's Noxious Weed director for a pay adjustment and agreed to reconsider the salary during the regular December'January pay-review process, but took no immediate action.

The director told commissioners she had been offered a starting rate when hired and asked the board to apply handbook-based experience adjustments or a 10% raise. "I would like to come in and visit with you about having the the salary adjusted," the director said during public comment, citing additional duties including household hazardous waste handling, annual applicator certifications and other tasks she says go beyond routine office work.

Commissioner Foote said the county typically sets salaries at the annual review: "We do salaries in January," he said, and indicated the commission would discuss any adjustment during the December and January cycle. County legal counsel advised that individual commissioners do not have unilateral authority to change pay and that negotiated changes must be documented through proper process: "Tony can't do anything on his own. Jean can't do anything on his own," counsel said, stressing that commission action must occur in open session or be reflected in formal personnel paperwork.

The director described pay-related confusion during hiring: she said the offered starting rate was $47.05 and that a six-month review had been discussed; she also said the position was later converted from hourly to salaried, eliminating overtime. She asked the commission to consider a roughly 10% adjustment that, according to her remarks, would place her "in that 25 range" per hour; the figures were discussed in the meeting and the commission recorded differing recollections about what had been promised at hire. The county attorney and commissioners characterized the discrepancy as a matter for documentation review and future negotiation rather than immediate pay action.

Outcome and next steps: commissioners agreed to revisit the request at the county's regular salary-review period in late December/January; no salary change was approved at the Oct. 13 meeting. The meeting record shows the commission encouraged the employee to prepare documentation of experience and comparative justification for review during departmental budget and salary discussions.

The exchange took place in open session; commissioners also noted that any off-record or one-off promises would need to be reconciled with personnel records and onboarding paperwork before an out-of-cycle change could be implemented.