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Commissioners consider delaying new hires, step increases to protect reserves
Summary
Faced with a multi-million dollar gap, commissioners discussed delaying new positions and postponing a step increase program; staff proposed budgeting six months' salary in contingency to allow reassessment later in the fiscal year.
Commissioners debated whether to delay hiring several requested positions and to postpone implementing a proposed step-increase plan for existing staff to protect the county’s targeted reserve.
Staff said the list of new employees represented roughly $664,000 in annual cost and that moving the step program would add about $190,000 to ongoing salary obligations. Options included delaying hires three to six months or budgeting six months' salary in commissioners’ contingency and reassessing later. “If you delay for six months… it’s about 330-ish thousand,” staff said; commissioners discussed a range of delay scenarios and the downstream impact on next fiscal year’s budget because delayed hires still become recurring costs if approved later.
One commissioner said he would hesitate to delay deputies and other positions tied to public safety; others urged a targeted approach focused on noncritical hires and using contingency budgeting to preserve flexibility. The court directed staff to budget six months in contingency for specified hires and to return with updated numbers for final decisions.
