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Commissioners discuss pursuing county classification change tied to CPI for elected-official salaries
Summary
Board discussed a workshop recommendation to apply a CPI-based increase to elected-official salaries and considered seeking a county classification change; the chair proposed seeking tentative legislative sponsorship and deciding at the end-of-month meeting whether to pursue reclassification for 2027 pay changes.
Dolores County commissioners spent part of the Dec. 15 meeting reviewing a recent workshop on applying a consumer-price-index (CPI) adjustment to elected-official salaries and the possibility of pursuing a county classification change.
The Chair summarized workshop findings and said a CPI-based increase would raise commissioner, treasurer, assessor and clerk salaries to roughly $67,360 and set the sheriff’s salary to about $75,511 for the relevant classification; the current salaries noted in the meeting were lower. The chair said the change would not take immediate effect for 2026 but would apply to officials entering office in 2027 and that changing the county category typically requires legislative sponsorship and cooperation among multiple counties.
"The sooner we can make a decision on this, if there's gonna be change or not, the better," the Chair said, and proposed county staff seek tentative sponsorship from legislators in early January. The board instructed staff to place the matter on the Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 agendas for further discussion and to consider a resolution authorizing the classification request if legislative sponsorship is identified.
Several commissioners said they supported reaching out to legislators and coordinating with other counties that might join the request; the board agreed to hold at least one more short workshop if necessary before making a final decision.
