Grant County employees receive pay increases

EPHRATA - Some Grant County employees received a 3 percent pay increase in 2013.

The commissioners reached an agreement with one of the nine bargaining units they negotiate with for the increase. The employees without representation received the pay increase as well.

The increase follows last year when the commissioners gave increases based on the county's pay scale. The county's system divides employees between 23 "bands", within each band are seven steps.

When an employee reaches the top step in a band, they don't receive a pay increase, unless the band they're assigned to changes. Commissioner Cindy Carter said the employees at the top of the scale received 40 hours of paid vacation instead of a pay increase.

"It's been a while since most of the employees got an increase," she said. "It was pretty tight last year."

Carter said the budget should be able to absorb the costs of the increases. Some situations, such as an expected settlement with REC about property taxes, remain unknown.

The Grant County Assessor's Office and the company recently announced they came to an agreement to end a three-year-long property tax dispute. The agreement has not come to the commissioners to be finalized yet.

"It was time," Carter said. "We needed to do something for the employees. There was money in the budget."

The county is still negotiating with eight bargaining units, Commissioner Richard Stevens said. The commissioners offered them the same increase.

Along with the increase, a majority of the county elected officials are also receiving 3 percent pay increases. The majority of the pay increases were set by a 2009 ordinance setting increases for the assessor, auditor, clerk, sheriff, treasurer and coroner until 2013.

The plan came from a 2007 study on county salaries, Carter previously said. The study showed the elected officials were making less money than some of their subordinates.

The study compared Grant County's elected officials salaries to Clallam, Grays Harbor, Mason, Lewis, Cowlitz, Skagit, Chelan, Franklin and Walla Walla counties, according to county records.

Most of the positions are being paid $78,676 a year now, according to the ordinance. The sheriff is making $93,974.

The commissioners received a 3 percent pay increase based on a 1986 ordinance. The ordinance calls for annual increases for the commissioners. The change adjusts their salaries from $73,851 to $76,066 a year.