As expected, the Des Moines County Board yesterday(Tues) granted much smaller raises to the elected officials than the Compensation Board had recommended.
Supervisor Tom Broeker made a motion to reduce those recommendations by 70%, leaving each elected official with an approximately 1% pay increase, just like the County’s union employees and other workers get, effective July 1st.
On another front, the Des Moines County Board’s ad hoc Budget Committee has come up with a list of 21 cost-cutting recommendations…measures it plans to present to the supervisors next Tuesday. Spokesman and Chief Sheriff’s deputy Jeff White says it’s all part of the county’s new “budgeting for outcomes” approach. One of the more noteworthy recommendations is to construct a new administration building on existing county property, which would allow the county to combine offices in a central location, allowing for more shared-office operations, better utilizing building space. State offices, the courtrooms and the County Attorney would all be housed in the current courthouse.
And it took some time, but the Des Moines County Board has given the final go-ahead for Craig Upton’s Hickory Crest Estates subdivision on Beaverdale Road. Land-use Administrator Jeff Hanan reportedly skipped some steps in the county’s ordinances and was told to go back and do it by the book. Supervisor Bob Beck says he doesn’t think Hanan’s actions were intentional.
