Supervisors continue budget discussions, set possible pay increase

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County government departments will begin the budgeting process for the next fiscal year by including 2.5% pay increases for employees.

That figure isn’t certain, and there are months of work ahead before the Floyd County Board of Supervisors approves an actual budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year that will begin July 1.

But settling on that number to begin working on the budget probably increases the likelihood that it is the increase county employees will end up with.

The supervisors at their workshop meeting Monday morning directed County Auditor Gloria Carr to use that figure as she sends budgeting materials to the various county departments.

The supervisors settled on that 2½% figure because it is the increase that the Floyd County Compensation Board recommended last week for county elected officials, except for the supervisors, which the Compensation Board recommended get a 2% increase next fiscal year.

It’s also the figure that negotiations with the county’s employee unions have settled on, although neither the Compensation Board recommendation nor the union contracts have been approved by the supervisors yet.

Also at the meeting Monday, the supervisors:

• Continued hearing from community groups that are requesting funding support in the new fiscal year. Healthy Harvest Iowa and the Floyd County Community Foundation made their funding requests Monday.

• Continued discussing the holiday schedule for the next calendar year. Supervisors said at a previous meeting that they think county employees would prefer getting Presidents Day off as a paid holiday instead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, because it comes about a month later and better breaks up the time between the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays and Memorial Day in May. The board could take action at its regular meeting this morning (Tuesday).

• Discussed a request by the FMC Governance Board and Charles City Learning Connections to approve an application for a Child Abuse Prevention Program grant. The county would have to be the contractor and fiscal agent for the grant, but would disperse the funds to the organizations. The grant is for up to $50,000 and has the potential for being renewed up to five years.