The Ramsey County Board continued its budget workshop on November 5, 2025, to discuss a series of addenda to the 2026-27 biennial budget. The addenda, sponsored by Finance and originating from the County Manager's office, included proposed reductions to address property tax pressure. Commissioners reviewed and debated each item, focusing on fairness, impact on services, and long-term financial sustainability.
They're all within a year for sure. Well, all right then. You mean business? We'd like to call a painting to order. This is a continuation of this morning's workshop. And we had done two of the items on the chart, correct? Yes. And now let's move on to the next one. All right. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. We are on item number 11. And just as a broad order review of this one, this one actually came out of the county manager's office. It is an addenda that reduces the levy by 260,000 each year. Currently, the county um has a performance pay salary plan. It's called the 727. Those are all the employees that receive some sort of a performance pay. We have 200 and 65 positions that would encompass primarily senior leadership as well as a lot of our IT staff are in that salary plan. Within that salary plan are also employees who are also in our elected offices, including the county attorney's office and the sheriff's office as well, because they're all in the same plan. And so the proposal is for that group of employees. And I am not personally on that salary plan. I have an annual contract with all of you, as you know. Um, but it would be for um the um 265 positions in addition to the county manager, um, taking a two-day furlough each of the uh years of the biennium. So it'd be the savings would be 260 each year. So um happy to discuss with you all. Um potentially the second year might be a different cost, right? If there's like been raised the wage increases, it's minor. Yeah, minor. It would be minor. So um happy to take any questions or thoughts of um any questions? So again, this is like for high level Yeah, these would be the highest employee paid employees in the county. Um all these employees are unrepresented. They um would remain eligible for their step increases. Also, they would be stay eligible for their performance base pay, which is why they're in this plan because they get that, and they also would be eligible for their general wage increase, which happens on on in on January 1st of each year as well. So they would not it they would be reduced from getting two days of pay, but they would get two days off. We would just handle it like people manage their vacation, uh working with their supervisors or managers to you know pick two days a year that they want to take off and they would code it differently and wouldn't get paid. So essentially, you know, you'd have a paycheck that you're only getting paid for um the um nine days or eight days, yeah. You'd be six giving up 16 hours each year of un as unpaid. How what is their current paid PTO or time days off? And do we is it um is it like they're at their max PTO that they can earn or that they give, or how I guess how does that work for us? Like I know in the nonprofit sector it was different, like senior leadership level got like 20 days of PTO a year plus holidays, like are we similar? And the other employees who started coming in like earn their way up to whatever their max was. Um they get the same day of holidays as every other employee. Um answering the easy ones first. In terms of um, we the county doesn't have PTO, we have vacation, like I said. Um, in terms of vacation, it is based on number of years of experience. So likely while there's not a set number, I would assume that the majority of the people at this level are getting the highest level of vacation, probably four weeks a year, some of them five weeks a year, I would guess. And it's not kind of not seniority or length of employment setting. Um Mr. Chair, commissioners, it is I said they say experience because it doesn't have to be in Ramsey County, right?