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Klamath County commissioners approve personnel budget assumptions, hold unemployment contribution
Summary
The Klamath County Board of Commissioners approved personnel services budget assumptions for 2025 — including new health insurance and PERS rate increases — but voted to delay collecting unemployment contributions for one year. The meeting also recorded approvals of several routine agreements and authorizations.
Klamath County commissioners on Dec. 17 approved personnel services budget assumptions for the 2025 budget year, adopting new health insurance and personnel cost assumptions while excluding an annual unemployment contribution for one year.
Human Resources Director Amanda Van Riper told the Board that countywide health insurance was budgeted at $1,730 per month for most employees, with Local 701 remaining at $1,208 per month. She said PERS employer rates were rising sharply for 2025 — "For tier 1, tier 2 PERS members, they're going to 27.28%. And ops, sir, they're going to 22.88%." Van Riper said the PERS increase represents a fiscal impact of "more than $448,000." She also outlined cost-of-living increases used in the assumptions: 4% for FAFPA, 4.5% for KCPOA, 4% for Local 701, and 3% for Local 737 and nonunion staff pending negotiations.
Van Riper told commissioners the unemployment carryover balance in the risk management fund is $1.3 million and that last fiscal year the county spent about $28,000 in unemployment claims. She recommended considering not collecting unemployment contributions for one year; the Board moved and seconded a motion to approve the personnel services budget assumptions "minus the unemployment contributions," and the motion was approved.
Van Riper also warned of other pressure points in the personnel-related budgets: a general insurance shortfall (she said the county collected about $897,000 but paid nearly $1.3 million last year), a workers' compensation risk fund carryover of about $2.6 million, and a modest workers' comp rate ("it's only 1.75% of gross wages"). She advised the Board these internal service charges will appear later in the budget process and said about 45% of those costs are borne by the general fund.
Votes at a glance: in the same session the Board approved several additional routine items with little debate. Those motions were recorded on the meeting record as passed.
- An exception to HR PTO policy to allow Sheriff‑elect Shane Mitchell to receive a PTO payout for accrued time (1202.5 hours), to be paid on the Jan. 25, 2025 paycheck at his sergeant rate. The motion was moved and seconded and approved.
- Authorization for the chair (amended to the vice chair for signature) to sign an intergovernmental cooperative purchasing agreement with National Purchasing Partners (NPPGov) to allow procurement under competitive contracts (presented for replacement snowmobiles for search and rescue). Motion approved.
- Authorization for Klamath County Assessor Nathan Bigby to participate in a three‑month pilot with C3 AI (a $250,000 pilot), under which the vendor will analyze county property data to flag outliers. Motion approved.
- Approval of a slate of liaison responsibilities for 2025 as presented in the meeting packet. Motion approved.
The Board directed staff to move these budget assumptions out to departments so they can begin planning. Amanda Van Riper said the Board's approval "so that we can get it out to departments. That way, they can start planning."
