Clerk details new-hire pay, pro-rated raises and line-item edits in budget review

Clerk (S1) told colleagues she set a new employee’s starting wage at $22.77 so that the new hire would be paid the same as a recent hire and explained how a $1-per-year raise in the county resolution applies only after one year. “I did it at $22.77,” the clerk said, noting she included three months of the dollar raise in the spreadsheet to reflect partial-year timing.

The clerk walked the group through the draft budget spreadsheet and identified the dark-blue totals that show the fiscal-year impact of the salary changes. She said she applied a 3.5% increase on top of existing lines where appropriate and recalculated employer contributions, suggesting those contributions should total roughly $8,000 in the department example discussed.

The review also reconciled several line items and cash-available balances. The clerk reported a cash-available balance of $77,763.96 in one account and explained that some amounts previously carried on older pages were consolidated onto current pages; she recommended budgeting the full available amount rather than retaining obsolete page line items.

Committee members asked procedural questions about when the dollar bump takes effect and whether some raises will fall into the next fiscal year. The clerk clarified that the $1-per-year increase is contingent on an employee completing a full year of work and that some dollar-amount raises will not formally post until fiscal year 2027, though she modeled partial-year impacts in the FY26 draft for transparency.

The meeting concluded the budget-line review with small adjustments recommended for supplies and contract lines to correct a $500 shortfall discovered during the walkthrough. Staff said they would make the spreadsheet changes and circulate corrected pages before the next meeting.

Next steps: staff will update the spreadsheet to reflect the agreed prorations and present the revised pages at the following session.