According to a press release sent on Friday, county officials approved a $2 million budget increase for public safety sworn positions — primarily benefitting members on the staff of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office — without proposing a tax increase.

“In 2024, Weber County issued a request for proposal and partnered with Baker Tilley to conduct a comprehensive, five-step compensation study,” the release said. “The purpose of the study is to ensure the County’s positions and grades are aligned with current market rates, provide consistency and fairness across the organization and help the County attract and retain a highly qualified workforce.”

On Monday, Weber County Commissioner Sharon Bolos told the Standard-Examiner that there is still a little bit of work to go in the study and future compensation increases.

“It’s been partially implemented with our sworn staff at the Sheriff’s Office,” she said. “In 2026, it will be implemented countywide for the rest of the positions, both civilian positions (at the Sheriff’s Office) and positions throughout the rest of the county. Then our pay policy is the last piece of that, and that is, ‘What is the county’s policy going forward in making sure that we stay at market rate in all areas of the county?'”

The phase one adjustments for sworn positions was made effective Aug. 30. To bring the rest of the employees to a new pay grade, the release notes that it will be an additional $1 million.

The press release further adds that these rises in compensation for county workers won’t require a raise in the taxpayer burden.

“Rather, compensation increases will be funded using on-going attrition savings and supplemented with a shift in year-over-year capital projects funding,” the release said. “Capital projects will continue to be funded through annual fund balance additions.”

Bolos added that the pay boost will go a long ways in retaining county employees.

“We have great employees, countywide,” she said. “Law enforcement is a little different beast because every agency is vying for the talent that’s out there, so we felt it was really important to bring people into market. One of the things that we adjusted was the pay bands so there’s not as much overlap, there’s not as much compression, so there are some issues within the sworn positions that we were able to fix as well. That allows people to advance without as much risk of making more than their supervisor.”

She said these adjustments send a simple but impactful message to Weber County employees.

“We value them, we want to have the best here at Weber County and provide the best services that we can for the residents we serve,” she said.