COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County commissioners are facing a payroll dilemma which could result in a pay reduction for salaried workers next year.

Commissioner Dan Green brought the issue forward during a debriefing meeting on Monday. He told the commissioners he wants to address an anomaly which has become an issue in the county's payroll system.

Green said an irregularity occurs every 11 years because of the way the county pays staff every two weeks instead of twice a month. That means in 2015, the county will pay employees 27 times during the calendar year - which isn't a problem for workers who are paid on an hourly basis.

But Green believes that because of this calendar anomaly, the county will be over-compensating salaried employees with an extra paycheck every 11 years.

County Assessor Mike McDowell, who attended the meeting Monday, said it's only one way of looking at the issue. He said the way he understands the issue, the county is simply paying salaried workers for time they've already worked.

McDowell said the problem arose when the county switched from a monthly pay system to a biweekly pay system which pays 26 times a year, or a total of 2,080 work hours.

By doing the math, McDowell said a full-time employee actually works 2,088 hours a year. By multiplying 26 pay periods by the 14-day work period, the sum equals 364 days, meaning there is one extra day per year that hourly workers are compensated for, but salaried workers are not.

McDowell said salaried employees don't get paid for those extra days until those extra days - combined with three extra days during leap years - complete an extra pay period 11 years later.

"The commissioners are saying that the county is overpaying, but really the county is just catching up for the work salaried employees have already done," he said. "By switching salaried workers back to the monthly system, the commissioners will save $300,000 on the backs of the salaried workers.

"That would have a significant negative impact on the people who run the county," he added.

Commissioner Todd Tondee said the cost of that extra paycheck to the county's 125 salaried workers is $300,000, and the commissioners did budget to pay that amount in 2015.

"This is a mistake that we should have addressed in 2005," Green said. "I will only support paying people for what they are contracted for."

Green said salaried employees agreed to work a full year for a specific amount of compensation no matter how many hours they work.

He said the commissioners have essentially three choices. The first option is do nothing, which he doesn't support.

The second is to switch to a twice-a-month payroll system, which would pose accounting problems with accruing vacation time and other benefits.

The third option is to reduce the salaries of the 125 employees by 3.7 percent for the duration of 2015, which is likely to cause an employee morale issue.

"I say, if we can do it legally, we only give them the 26 checks that they agreed to," Tondee said. "But we need to adjust it before the calendar year begins."

Commissioner Jai Nelson said she wants the human resource director to work with the county clerk and the assessor's office to prepare an analysis of the issue.

"I am willing to look at this," she said. "But I am not going to change anything until I see an analysis."

Once that analysis is complete, the commissioners agreed to revisit the issue.