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Budget session: board agrees to market adjustments and considers housing stipend to retain deputies
Summary
County staff told the Board of Supervisors they can balance the FY2025-26 budget with proposed market adjustments and a 3% scaling of pay ranges; Sheriff Eric Ellison urged the board to add a housing stipend to retain deputies and the board directed staff to include the stipend in budget development.
The Greenlee County Board of Supervisors held a budget work session in which county staff presented a near-balanced proposed FY2025-26 budget, described revenue trends and recommended market adjustments to employee pay scales. The sheriff asked the board to include a housing stipend to improve recruitment and retention of deputies.
County Administrator Derek DePier and finance staff said the draft budget was close to balance, noting recent state-shared revenue has been stronger than projected and that the county had room to transfer additional dollars to a financial stability fund. Finance staff said current estimates left the budget within roughly $138,000 and that several final items (insurance assessments, out-of-county tuition) still needed to be entered.
HR/finance described proposed market adjustments of roughly $121,000 and recommended increasing the county pay scale by 3% as a catch-up COLA after not moving the scale in prior years. "This is kind of the catch up year to get the scale back where it should be," staff said.
Sheriff Eric Ellison outlined recruitment and retention challenges. He said training a deputy to the academy and local requirements can cost $10,000'$15,000 and that statewide pay pressure from larger agencies makes retention difficult. Ellison proposed a housing stipend of about $10,000 per deputy (he framed the total request as $160,000) to help deputies live in-county; staff said a monthly equivalent would be paid rather than a lump sum and estimated a per-deputy monthly figure in the $700'$900 range based on the annual amount discussed.
County staff and supervisors discussed tradeoffs, noting stipend payments are not subject to some employee-related fringe costs and are a tool used by other counties. Staff said a stipend could be built into the proposed budget and is less expensive for the county than an equivalent across-the-board salary increase; the board gave direction to include market adjustments and to proceed on the stipend concept for budget adoption work.
Other budget details included an offered transfer to the capital improvement fund that could be scaled back if federal rural schools money (Secure Rural Schools) did not materialize; staff said PILT was funded for the year and that state-shared revenues had exceeded recent projections.
Ending: Staff said they would finish entering the remaining assessments and bring a proposed budget to the board for adoption at an upcoming meeting; supervisors directed staff to include market adjustments and to proceed with the housing-stipend option in the draft budget.
