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Commissioners add part‑time COLA discussion; staff to produce cost estimates and employee counts
Summary
Commissioner Smith successfully added an agenda item to examine cost‑of‑living adjustments for part‑time and permanent part‑time employees. The board directed finance to compile counts, the fiscal impact of a 1.5% retroactive adjustment, and potential funding sources for the Nov. 17 meeting.
Commissioner Smith requested on Nov. 3 that the board add a discussion about whether part‑time county employees received the 1.5% cost‑of‑living adjustment adopted in the current budget year. The chair and the board agreed to add the item as 13a during the agenda approval.
Commissioners noted ambiguity in the budget ordinance language about whether the COLA applied to regular employees only or included permanent part‑time staff. Staff said there are categories of employees—full time, permanent part time and part time/temporary—and that the county has "a handful" of permanent part‑time employees and roughly 110 part‑time employees overall (the figure provided was preliminary and the board asked finance to prepare a formal breakdown). Commissioners asked finance to estimate the dollar cost to retroactively provide a 1.5% COLA to any part‑time workers who did not receive it and to propose potential funding sources.
No vote was taken. The board asked that the finance and accounting manager prepare a report with counts by employment category and the cost impact for discussion at the Nov. 17 meeting.
Why this matters: Compensation adjustments affect employee retention and department budgets; the board requested data before deciding whether to fund retroactive COLA adjustments for part‑time personnel.
