Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Personnel topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lincoln County commissioners debate NACo-based salary proposal for elected officials
Summary
The board spent over an hour debating a NACo salary study and a proposed salary resolution for elected officials covering 2027–2030; commissioners raised concerns about methodology, CPI timeframe and the budgetary impact, and asked for further cost breakdowns and committee materials.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners devoted the bulk of its Dec. 15 meeting to a lengthy discussion of a proposed salary resolution that would set elected officials’ pay for the 2027–2030 term.
Commissioner Wiens (committee lead) and other committee members presented a draft built from a NACo (National Association of Counties) salary study and local committee analysis intended to place county officials “in the middle of the recommended array.” Committee materials included one‑year first‑step increases in some scenarios that prompted questions: one example shown in the packet projected roughly a 29.9% increase for the county clerk’s 2027 starting base in the most aggressive scenario.
Committee member Joe — who led an independent review of the study’s methodology — said the study’s chosen timeframe and index produced a larger jump than he expected. “If you look at their numbers, September ’24 to September ’25, that’s a 33% increase,” he said, adding his view that the committee’s use of a multi‑year base produced an inflated starting point for certain offices.
Assessor Julie Stenger and Treasurer Sherry Newton joined the discussion to explain office workloads and recent changes in responsibilities. Stenger described two tax corrections earlier on the agenda and reiterated the assessor’s workload when commissioners raised staffing and succession concerns. Treasurer Sherry Newton noted the committee used prior arrays and cost‑of‑living adjustments as part of its analysis.
Board members asked staff for more granular fiscal calculations, including the aggregate budgetary impact over the 2026–2027 cycle. One commissioner summarized the committee’s rough estimate of the net additional general‑fund cost for 2027 as about $182,279.82 in the scenario discussed, but asked staff to provide a fuller accounting including deputy and employee pay impacts.
Members agreed the committee’s numbers were a starting point for negotiation rather than a final recommendation. The board directed staff to distribute the committee’s working papers, the NACo toolkit screenshots and the detailed math used to derive the draft figures and to continue the discussion at a subsequent meeting before the Jan. 15 deadline for final action.
No resolution was adopted on Dec. 15; the item will be returned to the agenda for further review and a formal decision.
