Jefferson County To Vote On Raising Salaries For Elected Officials

By Gordon HopkinsJefferson County Commissioners will be holding a vote Tuesday, Dec. 30, to consider raising salaries for elected officials. That increase would be effective in 2027 and be for the next four fiscal years.Over the last few years, Jefferson County, like most other local governments, has been forced to raise salaries for employees. It has put a crunch on budgets but commissioners believe it was necessary to attract and retain staff during a time when the entire country is suffering from an ongoing workforce shortage.Some officials feel that while the focus has been primarily on hired employees, elected officials’ salaries have fallen behind. The matter was discussed at a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16, with several elected officials, including Sheriff Nicholas Georgi, who made that exact point. Part of the problem, he indicated, is that state statute requires salaries for elected officials to be set by resolution every four years, “Over the last years, we've given raises and given raises and given raises to our employees, because we needed to, but, you know, we're stuck on resolution for ours, and I feel like the elected positions have fallen behind.”County Clerk Kristina Riggle agreed, “I would concur with what Nick is saying. I think elected officials have fallen behind honestly, and I know we're in tight budget crunch.”The sheriff recommended, “I would like to see a 10 percent jump for all elected positions at minimum for that 2027 year.” NACO (Nebraska Association of County Officials) has conducted a salary study.“So, I've looked at the NACO salary study. I've compared population-wise and county size-wise, and tried to look at counties in our area, not specifically just southeast Nebraska, but a few in central,” said Riggle. “If you go mid-range between the NACO recommendation, that's putting us right around 10 percent.”The suggestion made by officials was to give a 10 percent raise for the first year and a four percent raise for each of the following three years.Another reason given to support an increase for elected officials was that of liability.“What's the point of being in charge and taking liability?” asked Georgi. “If something happens at the sheriff's office, everything comes back on me.”Again, Riggle agreed, “If something goes wrong in any of my offices, it doesn't matter who made the mistake. It's on me. It's my liability, my neck on the line for all of that.”Commissioner Michael Dux held a different opinion.“Whatever raise we give, 100 percent of the blame, in my opinion, falls on the commissioners and not on the other elected officials,” said Dux. “They always say, ‘It's the commissioners fault.’”While finding employees has become increasing difficult, especially for rural areas like Jefferson County, finding people willing to run for elected offices is also becoming more difficult. For example, Jefferson County Attorney Joseph Casson also serves as County Attorney for Thayer County because no other candidates have filed for either position. As fewer and fewer attorneys are willing to run for county attorney, those that remain have to take up the slack. The result is an ever-increasing burden on those attorneys who do work in rural areas, as well as an increasing burden on the budgets of those counties that must hire attorneys from father andf farther away.Commissioners indicate they are cognizant of budget constraints but they must also deal with the reality that those elected position must be filled.

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