Sumter County staff directed to budget 3% COLA as commissioners review pay study with $1.3M–$2.3M cost range

Sumter County commissioners gave staff direction Jan. 20 to communicate a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for budgeting purposes and asked for implementation scenarios after reviewing a countywide pay and compensation study.

County administrator Arnold and employee-services staff explained that the county’s policy uses the October CPI‑W index to set COLA guidance; October 2025’s CPI‑W was 2.8%. "If that CPIW is...2.8%...we look for guidance to confirm, you do want to proceed with that," Arnold told the board. Chair (speaker 3) voiced support: "I have no problem with doing another 3% this year." The board instructed staff to treat 3% as the working assumption for next year’s budget while final adoption remains part of the FY 2026–27 budget process.

The board also heard a presentation from Risk Strategies, which conducted a classification and compensation study covering BOCC positions and participating constitutional officers (the sheriff’s office was excluded from the consolidated pay plan analysis). Consultant John Mueller said the county’s current salary ranges were unusually wide and recommended moving pay ranges toward the 50th–65th market percentiles to reduce compression at the low end. "We tried to be somewhere between the fiftieth and the sixtieth percentile of the market data," Mueller said.

Mueller and staff provided itemized estimates: bringing affected BOCC positions up to new minimums would cost roughly $453,000; compressed positions in fire/EMS and other constitutional offices produced additional figures (the clerk’s office compression was estimated at roughly $420,000 under the consultant’s assumptions; the tax collector impact was shown around $146,000; property appraiser compression roughly $138,000; smaller offices and compression items added to the total). Commissioners and staff discussed different totals at the table; depending on final scope and whether some cadet or CBA-covered positions are excluded, participants cited figures ranging from about $1.29 million to roughly $2.3 million.

Commissioners pressed on timing and rollout options. Staff said any full implementation would be effective at the start of the next fiscal year (Oct. 1) and recommended preparing scenarios for full implementation, partial implementation, and delay so the board can weigh budget impacts before final decisions. Arnold agreed to produce scenario budgeting and historical comparisons for the board’s May budget workshop. "If the board wants to give me direction, let's go ahead and plan on the implementation. We can work through that in May," Arnold said.

The board did not take a formal vote on the pay study implementation at the workshop; the action taken was procedural direction: communicate a 3% COLA for budget guidance and instruct staff to return in May with modelled budget scenarios and recommended roll-out options for the pay study.