County administrator urges updating free-cash reference, cautions against prescriptive step increases

Administrator Dutton, speaking during the finance committee meeting, said the draft resolution should be amended to reflect the county's actual free-cash target and to avoid prescriptive personnel language. "Our current policy...is to try to keep a balance of 15% of our annual budget," he said, and noted the draft instead references 10%.

Dutton also warned that specifying a 2% step differential could complicate collective-bargaining negotiations. "I would only caution that since that's a matter of negotiation, mostly my biggest concern is with union personnel," he said, recommending language that asks for a reasonable increment rather than a set percentage. Committee members agreed to soften numeric personnel language and to let Clerk Fletcher incorporate non-prescriptive wording into the circulated draft.