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Supervisors debate COLA wording and schedule benefit meeting before finalizing wages
Summary
County leaders discussed rewording a COLA policy targeted to 80% of Midwest CPI and agreed to meet with benefits staff to review health-insurance options before finalizing wage and step-plan decisions ahead of budget adoption.
Franklin County supervisors spent part of the Jan. 25 session reviewing the county’s compensation guidance and scheduling follow-up meetings to finalize wages and benefits.
Why it matters: Wages and benefits are among the largest recurring items in the county budget and can affect staff retention and property-tax pressures for residents.
Staff presented a recommended policy revision that would state the county ‘‘targets an annual COLA equal to 80% of the annual change in the CPIU for the Midwest Region’’ and explicitly allow the board to adjust the COLA downward for fiscal reasons, provided the rationale is documented in the annual budget adoption. Speaker 9 recommended that phrasing to increase transparency for employees and taxpayers.
Board members asked for health-insurance pricing and partial self-funding numbers from Ryan (benefits/HR) before making final wage decisions. The group agreed to schedule a meeting with Ryan to review health-insurance options and projections so that COLA and step-plan adjustments can be finalized before the public hearing and budget adoption deadlines.
What happens next: The board will meet with benefits staff for an updated run of health-insurance scenarios, then reconvene to adopt wage/COLA decisions in time to publish final budget figures for the public hearing.
