The Morgan County Commissioners unanimously passed two collective bargaining agreements with local unions on Monday morning.
Commissioner Chair Mike Wankel says both union contracts held no surprises: “It was actually a very smooth process this year with the deputies. There was some verbiage that the county’s lawyer has cleaned up. That took a little time to bounce it back and forth between the union and us. We’re happy with the results of that and glad to get it settled. As far as the highway department, it was the same process. There were very little changes in the contract there. We’re happy to get both agreements done, signed, and ready for them.”
Wankel says that outside of normal cost of living-style salary increases, which were budgeted for, there was very little in the ways of impact to the county’s budget.
As far as the budget process goes, Wankel says they are working their way towards preliminary talks for the upcoming year: “We’re waiting for the newly elected officials, Mr. [Donny “Racer”] Wood and Mr. [Michael] Woods to get their feet solidly on the ground. Then, we’ll start looking into those figures and get both of them well-rounded on the information so that they can make the best decisions moving forward.”
The county budget process will see approval of the following year’s budget, usually at the end of August or early September. The upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 budget was passed by the previous commissioners in early September of this year.
The county budget process will see approval of the following year’s budget in August and September. The upcoming Fiscal Year 2025 budget was passed in early September.