The Sherburne County Board Tuesday approved a two percent salary increase for its four elected officials.

 

Administrator Steve Taylor said the county board is statutorily required to set the salaries of the county elected fulltime officials.

 

Last year, the county implemented a performance-based salary adjustment program to reward its employees. From an internal equity standpoint, non-union employees who meet standards could receive an annual merit base salary adjustment of between 4.5% and 5.5%.

 

Taylor said setting the salaries of elected officials is based on a number of criteria, including qualifications and experience, performance complexity of duties and responsibilities, number of staff as well as internal and external pay equity. 

 

“And the fact that there is adequate budget set aside for the proposed 2% increase, I endorse this board action and resolution,” he said.

 

With the increase (retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016), Sheriff Joel Brott’s salary is $141,122. County Attorney Kathleen Heaney’s salary is $140,189. Auditor/ Treasurer Diane Arnold’s salary is $100,816 and Recorder Michelle Ashe’s salary is $95,994.

 

In December, members of the board voted not to increase their own salaries, which remained at $38,406 for 2016.

 

The board approved the building expansion contract for schematic design with BWBR Architects and Adolfson & Peterson (A&P), the construction manager.

 

Dec. 15, the board approved entering into the design phase. At the time, the estimated cost was $694,000 for the plans and design specifications.

 

 

“Since that time we’ve been negotiating and honing the scope of work,” he said.

 

Under the contract, BWBR will receive $602,000 and A&P will get $65,000. 

 

Before the vote, Commissioner Bruce Anderson asked whether the design will indicate the cost of the third floor of the new courts building. That had been a topic of debate by the commissioners in December as they looked at ways to reduce the final cost. The expansion project has an estimated price tag of about $44 million.

 

“The third floor had been discussed at length,” said Anderson. “And that was not a given.”

 

Taylor said all the numbers will come out during the design phase.

 

“What’s going to come out of this is an estimate which will include a third floor,” he said. “If the estimate comes in extremely high, we’re going to have to go back and look at what we have to do to bring that estimate down.”

 

He said the county attorney’s office is currently slated to relocate to the third floor of the new building.

 

“What do we do with the county attorney? We would have to look at the numbers,” he said. “Maybe we look at keeping the third floor but making changes elsewhere. Maybe we bring down the level of tenant finish or maybe we look at the site work.”

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said the design should answer all the questions about the cost.

 

“None of this is a given. But hopefully we’ll get a good idea of the cost of this project,” he said. “It’s an expensive step to take, but I don’t think we can go anywhere without this.”

 

Schematic design is scheduled to be complete at the end of March.

 

“We’ll know more in a month and a half,” said Taylor.