(Spirit Lake)– Elected and non-elected county employees, along with the Board of Supervisors, will be receiving a three percent across-the-board increase in salary in the upcoming fiscal year following action at today’s (Tues.) Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting. That is below the five percent increase recommended for elected officials by the Compensation Board. Supervisor Kim Wermersen advocated for a 3.5 percent across-the-board increase…
“I also did some research on where it’s the most expensive place to live in the state and we’re fourth, fourth as far as counties in the state for highest median home value. That’s a challenge we deal with, right? Especially with taxation, property taxes. Because on the flip side of that, Dickinson county also has the lowest taxation by percentage of home value in the state. What that means is if you took the value of your home here and put it in any other county you’d be paying more taxes. This is all things we have to look at. You need to understand too that with House File 718, we are going to be taking a look at our levy going down again, automatically, because we’re going to continue to have growth here, and we’re fortunate that way.”
A motion by Wermersen for a 3.5 percent raise died due to the lack of a second. Supervisor Steve Clark then made a motion for the three percent increase…
“A lot of the counties around us are talking only about giving the cost of living. I know there’s different reasons in all the other counties why they’re staying only with the cost of living. I know Trump only gave one percent to the federal employees, that’s his preogative, ours is our own. I just feel to be fiscally responsible that we need to be in a three, maybe up to three and-a-half percent.”
Clark’s motion, which included a three percent raise for supervisors as well, passed on a three to two vote with supervisors Steve Dullard and Levi Markwardt voting no. Markwardt advocated for no raise for the Board of Supervisors…
“I’m reminded of a book I read a long time ago by Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last. And I really think it’s up to us as supervisors, and Mr. Clark mentioned that in his letter as well, to lead from the front and if we’re going to do this well, I think that’s, so.”
Wermersen spoke in favor of extending the three percent raise to the Board of Supervisors…
“I ran supervisor salaries across the state. Right now we’re 23rd and it’s below a number of other counties which have actually less population in the bigger cities there, because you’ll have to understand in the summer we’re around 90,000 people so we’re not a common 18,000 person county. So I’m looking more at attracting good folks down the road as well.”
A $1,000 stipend for the Supervisor Chairman was also approved. Salaries make up a significant factor of the county’s budget. Budget discussions for the upcoming fiscal year will kick into high gear in coming weeks. Today’s (Tues.) meeting was the final one of the year for Dickinson County Supervisors, as they won’t reconvene again until January 2nd, 2026.
