Weber County approves $2 million budget amendment to raise pay for sworn deputies

Weber County Commissioners on July 29 approved a $2 million budget amendment to implement pay increases for sworn deputies, Commissioner Bolos said. The amendment stems from a year-long county compensation study that focused on law enforcement and examined countywide pay, officials said. "Part of the, budget amendment that we made was in in reaction to the compensation study that is almost completed that we've done here at the county. It's taken about a year," Commissioner Bolos said. The county will reallocate existing ongoing capital-improvement funds to cover the permanent compensation increases and will use one-time salary savings and other one-time revenues to fund capital projects, county staff said. "We're going to reallocate that to ongoing compensation and take our 1 time savings from our salaries and other budget items and use that for our capital projects in the future," said Stephanie Eber, county staff member. Eber said public hearings were held as required by state statute before adopting budget changes and any compensation increases for county executives or officers. "And by statute, in order to do that, we have to have a public hearing," she said. County leaders and staff characterized the change as a trade-off that will slow some capital projects but preserve ongoing pay increases without raising taxes. "Our hope was that we could implement this the compensation study results without having to do a tax increase," Eber said. Commissioner Bolos added that the commissioners were "committed to keeping our good employees here and making sure that we compensate them fairly," and described the study as the first one of this depth in the county. Discussion versus formal action: meeting remarks described the study, funding plan and public hearings (discussion). The transcript indicates the $2 million budget amendment was approved, but the transcript does not provide motion text, mover/second or a vote tally. Looking ahead: staff indicated additional funds will be included in the next annual budget to implement compensation adjustments for other county employees; the timing and precise amounts for those wider changes were not specified in the meeting transcript.