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Council approves $1,500 one-time stipend for county employees
Summary
The council voted 5–1 to increase a proposed $1,000 one-time employee stipend to $1,500 and adopted budget language and salary-ordinance items clarifying eligibility and certain line items for coroner and surveyor positions.
The council voted 5–1 to increase a proposed $1,000 one-time stipend for county employees to $1,500, approving the change as part of the Food and Beverage Council budget on first reading. The motion passed after a short discussion and a roll-call vote.
Council member Michelle Ann Grama, who presented the figures, described the change as “good news” and said the council’s calculations showed, “We actually have enough money to increase that to a $1,500 stipend.”
The stipend is a one-time payment, not an ongoing base-pay increase. Amy, a staff member, read the eligibility rules to the council: it covers full-time employees (including elected officials and the chief deputy coroner, a salaried part-time position), requires continuous employment from July 1 through Dec. 31, and stipulates the payment should be made no later than March 2026. Amy said the stipend amount is $1,500.
Council member Jonathan T. Myers said he opposed the stipend, arguing that a one-time payment is not the appropriate substitute for base-salary adjustments. “I don’t think this is the way to do it,” Myers said, adding his view that raises should be structured as ongoing salary increases rather than one-time stipends.
Supporters said the stipend and recent salary-study work provide a stopgap to acknowledge employees whose pay did not move to comparable levels under the study. Council member Michelle Ann Grama referred to the salary study by Wagner, Erwin and Shealy (WIS) and said the stipend approximates what a cost-of-living adjustment might have provided for many employees.
Council members also discussed language to be included in the county’s salary ordinance this year to preserve hiring discretion up to stated salary maximums until a full salary-range structure is adopted next year. The council discussed adding specific line items the salary ordinance must include by statute — for example, a registered and an unregistered surveyor line and full-time and part-time coroner lines — so that percentage-based calculations required under statute can be made if those positions are filled in the future.
The vote approved the Food and Beverage Council budget item (identified in the discussion as 11570135) as approved on first reading, with the exception that the employee stipend amount was changed from $1,000 to $1,500. Mrs. Burton moved the motion; John Mallers seconded. Roll-call votes recorded in the meeting were: Tom Bates, Aye; John Dippers, Aye; Michelle Ann Grama, Aye; Kim Robertson, Aye; John Mallers, Aye; Jonathan T. Myers, No. The chair announced the motion passed 5–1.
Council discussion also confirmed an earlier administrative decision about “true-ups”: if an employee’s scheduled pay increase for the year was between $0 and $1,500, the stipend program will “true up” that employee’s increase so the total increase (raise plus stipend) reaches the $1,500 figure discussed by the council.
The council concluded the budget-item discussion by asking staff to place the “maximum” language into the final adoption of the salary ordinance and to include the coroner and surveyor line items this year as described. No additional formal amendments to the stipend eligibility or amount were made during the vote.
The meeting then moved to adjournment.
