Benton County supervisors adopt selective elected-official increases and approve targeted staff raises

BENTON COUNTY — The Benton County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt portions of the county compensation board's recommendations for elected officials and approved a package of pay adjustments for non-elected, nonunion county employees at their recent meeting.

The board approved a resolution that implements selected changes recommended by the compensation board rather than taking the package ‘‘all or nothing,’’ a move supervisors discussed after legal counsel advised the change in law allows partial adoption. As adopted, the supervisors remain at the current rate, the county attorney received an approved increase (described in meeting discussion as a $6,000 increase), and the auditor’s office was granted an increase described in discussion as $3,000. The resolution will be printed with the budget when Benton County adopts its budget, per board direction.

Why it matters: the resolution must be included in the county budget and affects how elected-official and staff pay is reflected in the fiscal plan.

Board members spent the bulk of the meeting on a second set of pay decisions covering non-elected, noncontract and nonunion staff. The board approved a package of adjustments that combined a general 3% across-the-board increase for most affected employees and separate, larger targeted adjustments for selected positions and departments. The board recorded approvals for an eight-person subset of targeted increases first, then approved the broader list of exceptions and the 3% increase for other non-elected staff.

Details recorded in the meeting record and discussed publicly include: Alicia (first assistant) 4.26% ($5,388.10); Derek Marsh 4.26% ($3,621); Lori Sila 4.26% ($2,819.27); Deb Fleming 4.26% ($3,080.33); Joyce Baines 4.26% ($1,919.13); Kelsey Robbins 12.31% ($4,664.82); Elena (last name not specified in the record) 7.5% ($2,969.36); Angie Becker 5.5% ($2,084.20). The board also approved a plan to bring collections staff up to a starting wage of $21.92 per hour to match starting pay for jail and communications specialists, with several collection positions receiving larger percentage increases to reach that target.

Supervisors and staff described the rationale for the targeted increases as twofold: (1) to align certain positions with entry-level pay for comparable sheriff’s-office roles and dispatch positions; and (2) to adjust pay where duties have expanded or where positions lag county peer comparisons. One supervisor said the county should avoid personnel cuts while pursuing other spending reductions to move toward a balanced budget.

Budget context: during discussion a supervisor noted a 5% countywide budget reduction would lower spending by about $1,708,120, a figure presented as an example of the scale of adjustments considered during budget work. The board instructed staff to bundle the approved compensation resolution into the budget documents for the upcoming adoption process.

What didn’t happen: no formal ordinance or statutory change was adopted. The board adopted a resolution reflecting the compensation decisions and approved staff pay actions; specific implementation steps and effective dates were to be reflected in the budget and payroll processes.

Ending: Supervisors directed staff to finalize line-item changes and present them as part of the budget adoption process; flagged exceptional increases and the list of employees to be excluded from the 3% general increase were to be documented for the auditor and payroll.