ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Salaries continue to be a big topic of discussion as Seward County returns to a Revenue Neutral Rate for Fiscal Year 2026.
At the county commission’s Feb. 19 regular meeting, Human Resources Director Angela Johnston brought a request to establish a baseline for starting wages for open positions at the county.
Part of the request was for a detention officer who began work Monday, Feb. 23, to start at $18.54 an hour.
“I just received another request for a sheriff’s deputy starting date to be determined at $22 an hour,” Johnston said. “All detention officers start at $18.54 an hour. We have a records clerk proposed at $17 an hour. The county attorney has hired two secretaries who are starting at $15 an hour.”
Johnston said the records clerk and secretaries also started recently, and she also had other requests for starting wages for all of the county’s open positions.
“We have some safety sensitive positions where if we continue to wait every two weeks, we are missing out on candidates, and they would like to get approval for a base hiring wage,” she said.
In addition to the other requests, Johnston said she had proposed $20 to $22 an hour for sheriff’s deputies, health department clinical nurses at $26 to $29.50 an hour based on experience, EMTs with three to five years at $16 to $17.50 an hour, a paramedic with three to five years experience at $18 to $19.50 an hour and an administrative assistant for the Road and Bridge department at $18 an hour.
Commission Vice Chair Todd Stanton asked how these compared to previous baseline salaries for the county. Johnston said they were the same.
“There are no increases,” Johnston said. “These are the same as anybody who has previously held the position.”
Stanton asked Johnston if the salary for the administrative assistant was higher than normal for a starting salary. Johnston said it was not.
“We could go with a range of $17 to $18 if you would prefer based on experience,” she said.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the baseline wages for the open positions in the sheriff’s department, county attorney’s office, the health department and the EMT paramedic department.
