County 2023 budget includes $105,000 for council members’ pay increases

CACHE COUNTY — After another round of nit-picking at a special meeting on Dec. 1, the members of the Cache County Council have finally approved a county budget for 2023.

Despite the council’s professed concern for fiscal restraint, buried in that budget proposal was $105,000 for pay increases for the council members themselves.

The origin of the proposed $15,000 pay increase for each of the council’s seven members was an offhand remark to Finance Director Cameron Jensen by council member Paul Borup during discussions about the 2023 budget on Nov. 15.

“So I can go out with a bang,” Borup joked, “can you add in, just so this council can look at it, another $15,000 for each council member per year?”

Borup said he felt qualified to make that suggestion after voting against council pay raises for the past four years.

“This council has put in yeoman’s work this year,” he explained. “At $15,000 more a year, we’d still be the lowest paid county council in Utah.”

Borup will be leaving the council on Jan. 1 – prior to his proposed pay increase going into effect – along with council members Gina Worthen and Gordon Zilles.

A required public hearing on the proposed pay hike for council members is scheduled for Dec. 13.

If that pay hike proposal is approved, compensation levels for council members in 2023 will be $31,000 annually, up from $16,000.

The 2023 compensation for the council’s chair would be $35,000 annually, up from $20,000 per year, plus a $1,200 vehicle expense stipend.

The council had spent more than two hours during the Dec. 1 meeting dictating changes to the budget to Jensen, making it difficult for the finance director to come up with a final budget figure including all those changes.

Borup – in his unofficial role as the council’s self-appointed budget hawk — was careful to skirt that issue by making a motion to approve “… the 2023 budget as presented and amended at this meeting.”

Council member Gina Worthen also moved that the minutes of the Dec. 1 meeting, including all transaction details, be amended to the budget.

After accepting that suggestion, the council members voted 6 to 1 to approve Borup’s motion.

The lone dissenting vote came from council member David Erickson.

There’s just something that doesn’t feel right,” Erickson said before the vote. “I want to say a lot more than what I will.”

Erickson promised to share his misgivings on the budget process at the council’s meeting.

“Maybe,” he added.

The ongoing feud between the council members and County Executive David Zook made the budget process an unprecedented challenge for everyone involved.

In late October, the county executive presented his recommended budget totaling $115 million with no tax increase and significant payment of county debts.

That proposal included a “Top Ten Highlights” document that listed items of special interest in the proposed budget.

Those included paying off $11.5 million in debt for the new County Public Works building 18 years in advance; increased sales tax revenue estimates of $10.3 million; the payoff of debt for the County Administration building, which will free up $1 million in the General Fund; additional funds for the Senior Citizens Center and the Meals on Wheels program; and changes to the Sheriff Department’s budget to accommodate the new animal shelter.

Two days later, the council responded with an usual press conference in which they expressed their united dismay with the budget process, which they termed tremendously dysfunctional.

In mid-November — following an election in which Zook retained his position against a write-in challenger endorsed by the three council members — the council began discussions on its own budget proposal.

That budget began as $114.3 million proposal, but has since changed rapidly as council members voiced displeasure with allocations to certain department and services; the idea of paying off low-interest debts; the process of purchasing county vehicles; and a host of other concerns.

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4 Comments

  • Ttunac December 5, 2022 at 1:08 pm Reply

    This is unacceptable!! Corruption and deceit from the council! Tax dollars are being abused.

    • Ttunac December 5, 2022 at 10:51 pm Reply

      Sock puppet ^

    • KA December 6, 2022 at 7:31 am Reply

      And you’ll keep voting them back in over and over and over again. So who’s the real fool?

  • Enough December 6, 2022 at 7:43 am Reply

    Well anyone who elected these idiots has no room to complain about them giving themselves a raise. Greedy idiot dicks.

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