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County recorder/surveyor urges retroactive pay under state code; council split on legal reading
Summary
County Recorder/Surveyor Greg Wolbach argued the county has undercompensated combined offices since a 2014 consolidation and asked council to follow state code language that could increase his pay; council and county attorneys disagreed on statutory interpretation and did not change salaries at the meeting.
County Recorder and licensed professional land surveyor Greg Wolbach asked the Summit County Council to revisit the compensation for the combined county recorder/surveyor office, citing state statutory language on combined offices that he said has not been followed since consolidation in 2014.
Wolbach presented two options in his staff report and estimated cumulative underpayment over multiple predecessors of more than $1.2 million if the county were to apply the statute’s formula retroactively or rebase the combined salary. He argued that because he holds a licensed surveyor credential and is performing survey work the county previously contracted out, the salary should reflect that statutory obligation. Wolbach also provided a line-item estimate of work his office has completed in-house that otherwise would have been contracted out.
Council members and legal staff examined the relevant state code sections (cited during the discussion as UCA 17-66-402 and UCA 17-66-403 in the transcript) and disagreed on the reading. Several council members observed that when the legislative body consolidated the offices in 2014 it fixed the combined compensation and that subsequent elected officeholders accepted that published salary when they ran. Other council members recognized Wolbach’s point about the office performing more licensed surveying work now, but the majority concluded no immediate salary change was required and that the county is in compliance with the statutory framework as applied when the consolidation occurred.
What’s next: Council asked staff and county legal counsel to confirm statutory obligations in writing and to return with any recommended policy changes or options rather than immediately reconfiguring salaries.
