Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz The county’s latest compensation study isn’t yet finished, but from what she’s seen of the preliminary data, Norma Williams said it validates much of what the Del Norte County Employees Association SEIU 1021 has been saying for years. Still, speaking with Redwood Voice Community News nearly a week after county administration began the 2025-26 budget process with the Board of Supervisors, Williams, the association’s chapter president, said she would urge the public to ask their own questions. “Regardless of wage increases, Del Norte County is still under market when compared to other similar counties, or the counties they chose to compare ours against,” she said Monday. “We’re still below average. At some point, the rubber has to meet the road and you have to figure out what path you’re going to drive on.” Four Del Norte County supervisors approved the 2025-26 recommended budget at a business meeting June 24 that was only 37 minutes long. District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey was absent. While those that attended didn’t offer much comment before voting, District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson pointed out that the recommended budget is a first step in the budget process. The recommended budget allows Del Norte County to continue paying its bills in the new fiscal year while staff continue to work on a final version, Wilson said. He noted that the county’s largest expense comes from personnel costs, which are currently fluid since contracts are still in negotiation. “Those figures are going to change,” he said. “This allows us to continue the business of doing business until we have a finalized budget.” According to the county’s staff report from the June 24 meeting, the total recommended 2025-26 budget is $219,367,963. This includes a general fund budget of nearly $45.3 million. At that meeting on June 24, Williams acknowledged a statement in the staff report that the budget was balanced, but she said data from the Gallagher report will inform negotiations between SEIU 1021 and the county’s budget team. The county budget team, which includes Auditor-Controller Clint Schaad and County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez, sent a memo to department heads in March providing direction for submitting their requested budgets for the 2025-26 fiscal year. By adopting the recommended budget before June 30, the Board of Supervisors gives the county spending authority when the new fiscal year starts on July 1. County supervisors typically approve and adopt the final budget by Oct. 2, according to Lopez’s staff report. The budget process will also include two public workshops from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 4 and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Aug. 5, Lopez told Redwood Voice on Wednesday. Information from the Gallagher Report — the compensation and structural analysis the county commissioned about a year ago — will be included in this year’s finalized budget, Lopez said. Preliminary data sets have been sent to the various associations that represent county employees, including SEIU 1021, the CAO said. They will have an opportunity to have their questions answered either from Lopez or from Gallagher representatives. The goal is to have that process completed by early July so the consultant can finish its report. “A comp analysis is a management tool the county can do at any time without involvement from stakeholders to show us where we’re at in the market,” Lopez said. “This time around, Gallagher included other stakeholders. They like buy-in from other groups as well.” The compensation and structural analysis is expected to include information about how the county’s benefits compete with those other counties offer, Lopez said. He noted that due to Del Norte County’s isolation as well as its massive public lands base, it’s often out of market with other communities. Williams said that while DNCEA has the raw numbers, it doesn’t have Gallagher’s complete findings, including its recommendations. After receiving information related to SEIU 1021, which represents more than 200 county employees, Williams said the report claimed there was insufficient data for 28 job classifications out of a total of 85. When asked, Williams told Redwood Voice that she was unable to go into specifics with regard to those 28 job classifications, but said that all 85 cover a range of positions. “There are 28 they claim they could not find comparable [data] for and so that’s what we’re focusing on right now,” she said. “We’re also going to be spending time reviewing the raw data. We requested other facts and figures, which they did submit to us. We’re analyzing everything and then using all of that to come up with our own salary proposal.” At last week’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Williams appeared to criticize the $128,000 the county spent on the Gallagher report. On Monday, Williams estimated that since 2016, Del Norte County has spent about $400,000 on compensation analyses. This includes a study conducted in 2016 that cost about $100,000 and another prepared for the county by the Collective Good in 2022 that cost about $158,000. Del Norte County is also expected to go through a Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, study in October, Williams said, that will make sure it is applying the status of exempt and non-exempt employment appropriately. That study is expected to cost about $30,800, she said. “We’re not paying our people enough even with the eight comparable counties [Gallagher] chose, which is one of the reasons we have a revolving door,” she said. “That hasn’t changed since 2016, it didn’t change when the Collective Good issued its report in 2022 and it certainly has not changed in 2025.” 44c9da4d-423c-4b4c-b6b7-b45a25150f2aDownload