Kris Miller
Hiawatha World

Two of the Brown County commissioners voted to approve a proposed wage structure for Brown County employees at the end of Friday’s special Brown County meeting on Jan. 10.

Commissioners Richard Lehmkuhl and Lamar Shoemaker voted in favor of the wage structure while Commissioner William Pollock dissented. Pollock cited that the raise would come out of the departments’ budget and not every department was budgeted for raises but County Clerk Nikki Lee pointed out that the departments submitted the proposed raises, with Lehmkuhl adding that the departments had the proposed raises in their budget and still able to support the raises.

Pollock argued that raising too much money too fast would result in lacking support for farmland in the county and also not be able to sustain on a county level. Lehmkuhl pointed out that the commission could not control what each department does with their budgets, and with rising costs, Lehmkuhl argued “Everybody wants to keep their employees” due to the current competitive atmosphere.

In the end, the vote to approve the proposed wage structure was passed at a 2-1 vote.

The next commission meeting will take place on Monday, Jan. 13.