The Kosciusko County Council hears from Sheriff Jim Smith and his department Tuesday, Aug. 19, about their 2026 budgets. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — For a couple years, Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith has been working to get a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for his deputies.

On Tuesday, Aug. 19, during the second day of budget hearings, the Kosciusko County Council partially granted the request.

Council President Tony Ciriello said, “Sheriff has come to us and asked to talk about a COLA increase for this year’s pension fund. The sheriff pension fund, as you may or may not know, is a private pension. It is not publicly funded, it is only funded by us on the county level and the deputies put into it.”

The sheriff’s department pension has never had COLA put into it.

“One of the things that our sheriff is being proactive and one of the things he’s done, besides all the money he’s been saving along the way for us, is to look at trying to get a COLA increase into the pension to fund future retirees, and he wanted to include current retirees, too,” Ciriello said. “He asked for a 2 or 3% COLA. Again, with things the way they are, we discussed it among the council and our recommendation has been that we provide the sheriff with a 1-1/2% COLA for the time being, revisited in later years – 1-1/2% for future retirees only.”

It does not include current retirees. For them, Ciriello said for as long as the sheriff’s pension fund stays at least at 88% funded, “we can give current retirees that are currently retired on budget a 13th paycheck at 3% of what they get.”

The 1-1/2% COLA begins in 2026. Anyone who retires with the COLA will not be eligible for the 13th paycheck as that’s only for current retirees. The 13th paycheck sunsets on the officer’s death. The 1-1/2% COLA is for officers who retired from the department after at least 20 years, reached the age of 55 in order to draw their pension and will last for 10 years. After 10 years, the retired officers will no longer be eligible for COLA.

Sheriff Jim Smith told the council, “I’m sure you are all tired of me talking about it. Obviously, I’m passionate about it. It’s been a two-year project. I’ve answered a lot of questions from the media, I’ve had a lot of meetings with you guys, phone calls. Whatever you decide is obviously more than we have now, so we’re obviously grateful, and I think I can speak for our staff, we appreciate your time and consideration.”

He said they understood that the timing was not ideal, but it’s important for the sheriff’s department to recruit and retain deputies who will stay with the department until they retire.

“So I think this will definitely help us, so I appreciate it,” Smith stated.

The council approved the 1-1/2% COLA for future retirees and the 13th paycheck at 3% of their annual pay for current retirees in separate motions.

List Of Changes

The county council also approved a list of other wages and salaries for 2026, as recommended by the wage committee. The committee includes Councilwomen Kimberly Cates and Kathy Groninger and County Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell.

Those approved included:

• Reclassifying the position of financial administrator in the sheriff’s department from a COMOT 2 to COMOT 1-3, which increases her wage from $45,160 to $50,250.

• Reclassifying the four financial deputies in the auditor’s office from COMOT 2 to COMOT 1 as their duties are similar to those of the financial administrator in the sheriff’s department. Wages for those four positions were not provided.

• A raise for Kosciusko County Coroner Tyler Huffer of $3,000. Ciriello said the $3,000 increase puts the coroner’s salary at just over $26,000.

• A $50 stipend for deputy coroners when they are on call on weekends. The stipends will increase the coroner’s budget between $2,600 to $5,000.

• A new assistant administrative manager for the Kosciusko County Highway Department.

• Reclassifying jail kitchen staff. The jail food service coordinator title will be changed to kitchen sergeant jailer and be paid $53,850; one jail food service employee changed to kitchen jailer at $50,028; another jail food service employee changed to kitchen jailer at $47,711; and Work Release food service employee changed to kitchen officer at $50,028.

• Reclassifying sheriff’s department reports coordinator from COMOT 3 to COMOT 2, with wage increasing from $41,343 to $43,007.

• Change the title of three-year merit deputy Brette Stamper to detective sergeant, effective Feb. 8, if the Merit Board approves. Wage will increase from $62,014 to $69,740.

• Increasing County Surveyor Jim Moyer’s salary of $68,392 by $3,351 effective Jan. 1, 2026.

• Changing the title of GIS technician to GIS coordinator in the surveyor’s office, with a reclassification from PAT 6 to PAT 4 and a wage increase from $50,602 to $57,708.

• Putting the position of a part-time secretary for the surveyor’s office in the budget for 2026 but Moyer will have to ask the council for approval when he thinks it will be needed as a current employee wants to retire in 2026. The proposed wage is $38,054.

• Wages for all other county employees that are paid out of the county general fund will be increased by 2% in 2026.

Recorder & A Wage Study

County Recorder Deb Wright requested a $5,000 pay increase for her salary, which would also increase the chief deputy’s pay due to the position getting 80% of the recorder’s wage. Wright’s current wage is $65,992 and the increase would make it $70,992, while the chief deputy’s current wage is $52,228 and the proposed increase would make it $56,794.

Cates, who was reading the recommendations from the wage committee, said, “The reasoning for this – and we know she does an excellent job – is that she is one of the lowest-paid elected officials. So increasing her wage by $5,000 would have her making more than the treasurer. And so, because there’s a world of difference between those offices, this could throw off our COMOT chart as we try to maintain pay equity. So the wage study would be the best way to adjust the wage because it would look at all elected officials’ positions while maintaining pay equity.”

At this moment, Cates said the wage committee would like for the wage study to come back so the committee did not make a recommendation. Their first recommendation was to not do the pay increase, but they decided they wanted to see the wage study come back to reconsider that. Groninger said the wage study was supposed to be back by now but it’s not. The council voted to table the recorder’s request for a pay raise until the wage study comes back. That did not sit well with County Treasurer Michelle Puckett, who wanted to know when the wage study was supposed to be completed.

County Auditor Alyssa Schmucker said the estimate was within the next six to eight weeks.

“So when is it that you’re going to take action on the wage study recommendations?” Puckett asked.

Ciriello referred to the wage committee.

Cates said, “Probably if we get it and it’s different than anything that people have recommended, we’re going to address it.”

“And you’re going to address that for what budget year? ’26? ’27?” Puckett asked.

Cates said they’d address it for 2027 unless the county has more money than it expects to have. Puckett asked what were the parameters of the “more money than you expect to have.” Groninger said they don’t have an answer or the report. She said the wage committee was under the impression that the wage study would come back before the budget hearings, but it did not.

“I feel like most of the decisions that we made, we were able to make decisions because we sent it to WIS (Waggoner Irwin Scheele) and felt confident that the decisions we were making were correct decisions because we factored in everything by WIS,” Groninger said. “So the only one in our mind, at least the only one in my mind, that could potentially be different would be Deb.” 

Seeing how the majority of the reclassifications that were submitted were approved, and everyone resubmitted their information, Puckett said, “These ones will get the benefit of seeing those increases in ’26, and nobody else will have that benefit.”

Groninger said it’s unfortunate but they couldn’t control when the wage study comes in. The committee had to make decisions based upon requests that they received. Ciriello suggested that any reclassifications should have been tabled until the report came in. Puckett reminded the council wages of elected officials can’t be changed in the calendar year after it’s started. So if the recommendation for Wright’s raise comes back with a yes, if it’s not done in the 2025 calendar year, it can’t take place in 2026.

“It seems like this wage study is taking an extensive amount of time, longer than our previous one had, and I don’t know if there’s any way we can ask them to speed it up a little bit,” Puckett said.

Groninger said Human Resource Director Cathy Reed did and Reed thought it would be back within a couple weeks.

Assessor Gail Chapman said she created two job descriptions this year that weren’t in her office, which were two part-time appraisers. She sent them in and, “This has directly to do with how much they’re going to get paid because part of that job, as I discussed in my budget meeting this morning, has been given over to Nexus to do. So to me, that salary needs to be adjusted. So, how do I know what they’re going to get paid?”

Ciriello said the wage study was done by the wage committee, but the committee said it was done by Reed. Unfortunately, he said, Reed is gone so the county doesn’t have any answers until she returns. The county has until Dec. 31 to approve the salary ordinance so Schmucker said there’s still time to address the concerns.