Clearfield County approves retention bonuses for probation department, paid from supervision fund

The Clearfield County Salary Board approved retention bonuses for the county probation department on Oct. 14, 2025, voting to pay $2,500 to full-time probation employees (union and nonunion) and $500 to a part-time probation secretary. The board directed that bonuses be paid in two increments: 50% on the payroll following approval and 50% on the second payroll in December. The board recorded that the payments will come from the probation supervision fund, a court-related fund, and not from the county general fund.

Comptroller Edwards described the proposal, saying the bonuses would apply to full-time staff and to part-time probation clerical staff and noted that probation hiring bonuses previously approved mean employees who received a hiring bonus in the same year are not eligible for a retention bonus. Edwards and other board members clarified that no bonus payments will be made to probation officers hired after Aug. 1, 2025.

The measure passed on a voice vote. Commissioners made the motion and seconded it during the salary-board portion of the meeting; commissioners then approved the item in the regular meeting after the salary-board adjournment. There was no recorded roll-call tally in the public minutes beyond the board’s affirmative voice vote.

Context: the board said the amount mirrors a retention payment previously approved for children-and-youth employees. The board also emphasized the funding source limit — that these are court-related supervision funds and not general-fund expenditures — when they voted.

The action affects the county’s payroll schedule and probation staffing costs for 2025; staff said the payments are administrative and limited by the eligibility conditions noted in the motion.