McDonald County Commission adopts 2025 budget and approves 5% COLA for employees

The McDonald County Commission approved its 2025 budget and moved to issue a 5% cost-of-living adjustment for county employees during a Jan. 22 meeting, according to the meeting minutes.

Presiding Commissioner Bryan Hall asked the county clerk to read the budget message, after which Hall moved to accept the budget as presented by County Clerk Bell; Commissioner Rick Lett seconded and the vote was recorded as unanimous. Earlier, Commissioner Jamey Cope moved to open the budget hearing at 10:08 a.m.; Commissioner Lett seconded. The minutes record the motion to close the budget hearing at 10:08 a.m. as well.

The minutes state that, "In addition to the Budget approval, Commissioners officially moved to issue a 5% COLA across the board to all county employees to become effective the January 2025 Pay Period." The document does not present a separate roll-call tally for the COLA item beyond the record of the budget votes.

The minutes list the meeting participants and record that the commission will reconvene on Jan. 27, 2025. The record contains an internal inconsistency on the county clerk's name: the header lists Jessica Cole as interim county clerk, while the budget-reading action is attributed to "County Clerk Bell"; the minutes do not clarify whether those names refer to the same individual.

The commission's action will set the county's spending plan for the year and adjust payroll costs; the minutes do not include a detailed line-item budget in the text provided.

The meeting adjourned with the date of the next session entered into the record.