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County attorney secures staff pay increases as juvenile-detention and appellate costs rise
Summary
The county attorney asked for targeted raises for staff and warned commissioners that juvenile-detention placements and outside counsel for appeals have driven higher legal and detention expenses. Commissioners approved payroll action forms for two staff.
Osage County Attorney (speaker 9) presented a staffing and compensation update and asked commissioners to approve targeted raises for two staff members, arguing the increases are necessary to retain trained staff and reflect market shifts in legal and allied professions.
The attorney explained that outside counsel and appellate work have increased contractual legal costs and that juvenile-detention expenses have spiked because the county now outsources juvenile placements at per-diem rates that can exceed $100'$150 a day. She said several long-running juvenile cases required extended custody stays and created materially higher detention and counsel costs.
Commissioners discussed the payroll timing and approved personnel action forms for the two staff raises effective July 26; the county attorney said the increases were modest in aggregate (about $6,200 for the current fiscal remainder) and were already included in the department's adopted budget projections. Commissioners asked staff to track juvenile-detention costs using a multi-year average where possible to smooth spikes when preparing the 2027 budget.
The attorney also urged further work on recruitment and retention measures and noted legal hiring markets are tight and increasingly remote-friendly, making competitive pay necessary to fill in-office positions.
