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Dickinson County approves $695,183 compensation package including 3% COLA, scaled pay‑grade changes
Summary
The Dickinson County Board of Commissioners approved a revised pay plan that includes a 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment and scaled changes to position minimums and compression limits; the county estimated the 2025 cost at $695,183.
The Dickinson County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 9 approved a revised county compensation plan that the county’s consultant said would cost $695,183 in 2025.
The plan adopts a 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment for the county’s 141 active employees, a set of reduced pay‑scale minimums and a $6,000 cap on individual compression adjustments, the consultant said. Commissioners voted to accept “Plan B,” the reduced‑scale option recommended after public comment and commission feedback.
The consultant, identified in the meeting as Phil, told commissioners the package was a compromise that cut an earlier, larger recommendation roughly in half. Phil said the 3% COLA “is still a value to the county” and that reducing the scale reduced the number of employees needing minimum‑scale adjustments from 39 to 24 and reduced the immediate financial impact from about $130,000 to about $55,000. He described a $6,000 limiter that would cap larger compression adjustments for 31 employees; those capped amounts were estimated at about $186,000, with roughly $178,000 left “on the sidelines.”
Commissioners and staff discussed retention and recruiting pressures since the COVID‑era. County staff reported savings already realized in the 2024 salary and benefits lines that will reduce the net budgetary effect. County finance staff told the commission the 2025 budget had assumed a larger amount during the July/August estimates and that savings realized in late 2024 will reduce the net impact compared with the earlier projection.
A motion to accept the compensation plan with the stated $695,183 total carried on a voice vote; no roll‑call tally was provided in the transcript.
The consultant recommended implementing the reduced 2025 pay scales and the 3% COLA for 2025, then freezing scales in 2026 while allowing step increases, with a projected 2026 workforce cost of roughly $389,000 if the county pays remaining compression dollars then. He also presented the option to eliminate the $6,000 cap and fully correct compression in a single year at an estimated cost of about $873,000.
Commissioners did not adopt the uncapped option; they approved the reduced plan with the $6,000 limiter and the 3% COLA.
The county will implement the plan and follow the consultant’s recommended next steps for 2026 adjustments as staff and the commission consider longer‑term pay‑scale maintenance.
Ending: County staff said they will incorporate the commission’s action into payroll planning and budget monitoring for 2025 and return with follow‑up information as part of normal budget maintenance.
