Lincoln County commissioners approved salaries Wednesday, granting a 2-percent cost of living increase to all non-union county employees and giving a 1-cent per hour increase to elected officials.

State law doesn’t allow deputies to receive longevity increases if the sheriff’s salary is frozen, so in order to avoid violating a union agreement with deputies, commissioners passed the 1-cent increase. 

Though the role of the salary advisory committee – made up of five citizens and the county’s seven elected officials – is to make salary recommendations for elected officials, members expressed that they wanted county employees to get some kind of increase even if it meant no raise for the elected, commissioner John Konzen said.

“It allowed some latitude to give money to the employees,” Konzen said. “The leadership of the county set the tone, ‘Try to keep the employees at some kind of competitive level.’”

The 2-percent increase is retroactive to July 1, and is roughly half of the calculated cost of living allowance, which was set at 3.8 percent this year.

“I think the employees, a lot of them have lower salaries (compared to other counties),” Konzen said at the meeting. “I think they’re happy to have a job, but we need to do what we can for them.”

Commissioner Marianne Roose added, “I wish it could be more .…”

Commissioner Tony Berget made a motion to suspend the 1-percent longevity increase for one year, but it was not seconded. 

The county is still in negotiation with the less than 10 unionized landfill employees, and the county entered a three-year union contract with employees of the sheriff’s office last year.