EVANSTON — The Uinta County Commissioners held a special meeting at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 21, to discuss raises for county elected officials. Commissioners passed a resolution at the May 15 meeting giving raises to the officials; however, at the request of some of those same officials the issue was revisited in the special meeting. The countywide elected positions include county clerk, treasurer, assessor, clerk of court, sheriff, attorney, coroner and the three commissioners. 

At issue was not the raises in general, but rather the amount and timing of the raise for the county attorney position in particular. The last salary increases for elected officials were approved in 2010, although the increases approved at that time were not fully in place until 2014.

The resolution passed at the May 15 meeting set annual salaries for clerk, treasurer, assessor, clerk of court and sheriff at the current $70,050 for 2019 and $72,450 beginning in 2020. Salaries for the county commissioners were unchanged at $29,460 annually, while the coroner’s salary would go to $13,408 beginning in 2020. The salary for the county attorney, based on last week’s meeting, would have increased from $82,150 to $100,000 beginning in January 2019. 

County assessor Lori Perkins spoke at the special meeting and said she was unaware the raise for the county attorney was set to go into effect in January 2019, while the raises for all other officials would not be effective until January 2020. Perkins said the other elected officials had requested the raises not start until 2020 so that county employees — who have not gotten raises in “quite some time” — could receive raises first. Uinta County Clerk Amanda Hutchinson told the Herald via email that there had not been an across-the-board raise for county employees since 2009.

Perkins said while property valuations are up and the forecast is improved, there is still some uncertainty over the Ryckman Creek bankruptcy case and a pending appeal, and she doesn’t believe the outlook is rosy enough to take on the substantial raise for the county attorney position. 

Commission chair Eric South took an opportunity to explain that half of the county attorney’s salary is paid by the state, something he said he wants people to understand when discussing the issue. 

Clerk of District Court Kerri Bumgardner also spoke and said she wants current county attorney Loretta Howieson to know the issue isn’t personal and is about wanting to ensure county employees receive raises. Bumgardner also shared her concerns about the budget and future economic outlooks. She said her office lost a position last year and wanted commissioners to think about what would happen if future budget and positions cuts are necessary. 

Bumgardner also raised questions about the county comparison offered at the previous meeting for justification of the raise to the county attorney’s salary. She said the three counties used in that comparison — Campbell, Sweetwater and Teton — are all richer counties and, furthermore, the salaries in those counties were $100,000 annually for the clerk, treasurer, assessor, sheriff and clerk of court in addition to the county attorney. 

County treasurer Terry Brimhall said there was some miscommunication or misunderstanding somewhere because she also believed raises for elected officials were not going into effect until 2020 because raises for employees needed to be addressed first. She said she didn’t have a problem with the county attorney position getting a larger raise because of the more stringent requirements associated with that position, but she did question the size of the increase. 

After all other elected officials had an opportunity to speak, Howieson went to the podium to provide justification for the wage increase for the county attorney position. She said that Uinta County is the seventh largest in Wyoming; however, the Uinta County attorney position is the fourth lowest paid in the state. 

She also emphasized the state pays half of the county attorney’s salary, and said it is the only elected position that is required to maintain licensing. She also stressed the raise request was not about her personally but was about the position itself, which she said has been undervalued by the county. 

Howieson said the workload for individuals in the county attorney’s office has increased substantially because of more than $150,000 in budget cuts and lost positions in the past four years, which have occurred while the office has taken on more work, including expanded juvenile services. 

She said there was never an understanding on her part that raises would not go into effect until 2020, and said if the issue was one of fairness, then all raises should go into effect in 2019. She said she has also requested raises for her staff, whom she said are invaluable, and has been assured by the commissioners that raises for county employees will happen. 

At that point, the commissioners discussed the increases, and Wendell Fraughton said he had looked into the average salary for county attorneys from the “top nine counties” in the state and it was approximately $93,000 annually. 

Fraughton then made a motion to change the salary of the county attorney position to $95,000 annually instead of the previously-approved $100,000, and to make all of the raises for elected officials’ salaries effective in January 2019. 

South emphasized that if the motion were to pass, the issue would not be revisited again, something he said he wanted everyone present to understand. The motion passed unanimously.