photo by: Contributed

Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky

Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky will be getting a 19% raise — more than $41,000 above her current base salary — which county commissioners said was appropriate to bring her compensation in line with administrators in nearby communities.

On Wednesday, the County Commission approved Plinsky’s base salary increase – the amount before taxes, benefits or other additional compensation. Plinsky’s previous base salary was $213,762 a year, and the $41,329 raise will increase it to $255,091 a year.

The commissioners said the change was meant to put Plinsky’s salary in an appropriate range, and they cited a compensation study by human resources consultant McGrath that compared Douglas County’s staff salaries to comparable positions in the area.

“I think maybe there’s some frustration with the number, but we did do a McGrath study,” Commissioner Patrick Kelly said. “We have had many meetings about that study and the methodology behind it … I am comfortable with the methodology.”

“The salary increase is not all based on performance,” he said. “Some of it is based on meeting market factors for the county administration.”

The McGrath study had suggested aligning county employees’ salaries with the 70th percentile of wages in the area for similar roles, meaning that, on average, Douglas County employees would be among the top 30% of earners for their position in the region, rather than among the top 50% of earners. Commissioners decided in October to implement the recommendations, but they did not change Plinsky’s compensation at the time because her position has a separate compensation agreement.

McGrath specifically compared the employees’ salaries, including Plinsky’s, with about a dozen other regional government entities, including the cities of Lawrence, Leavenworth, Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park and Shawnee, as well as Johnson, Leavenworth, Riley, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties. It also examined similar positions at the University of Kansas.

McGrath did not specify exactly which positions’ base salaries were compared to Plinsky’s. However, the Journal-World did find that Plinsky’s new salary is very close to that of one top administrator in the area — Lawrence City Manager Craig Owens.

A city spokesperson told the Journal-World that Owens has an annual base salary of $255,008 a year, just $83 less than Plinsky’s new salary.

Owens oversees the operations of the city government, including crafting the city’s budget plan each year and carrying out the Lawrence City Commission’s policy decisions. Plinsky holds a similar role, overseeing the county government and answering to the County Commission.

What is a bit different between their jobs is the size of the organizations that they oversee. For 2024, the city of Lawrence has a budget of $472,325,854 and 990 full-time employees. Meanwhile, Douglas County’s budget totals $183,794,519, which is over $288 million less, and it has 506 full-time workers.

While McGrath did not share the specifics about the positions it compared to Plinsky’s, it did provide a range of salaries. The lowest salary it found in the region was $213,009 — a few hundred dollars less than Plinsky’s base salary before the raise — and the highest was $333,378. According to a memo to the commission from the county counselor, John T. Bullock, the $255,091 amount for Plinsky’s new salary was based on that range and Plinsky’s level of experience, “coupled with an assumption that her job performance rating would be very positive.”

About five people spoke during the meeting’s public comment period on Wednesday about Plinsky’s raise, and most of them said they thought the raise was too large.

But the commissioners disagreed. They said they felt the raise was warranted after reviewing the market information and her job performance.

“I heard it stated that this is a salary close to or (the) same as some executive-level salaries,” Commissioner Shannon Reid said, referring to some public comments made during the meeting. “To me, that’s an affirmation that it’s an appropriate number because Sarah is an executive. Her position is an executive level position (in) one of the largest organizations and employers in the community.”

And Commissioner Karen Willey emphasized that “Our community is not an easy one to work for.”

“It’s a hard number for those of us that you know will not make that money or see that, but recognize that it is a job that is pretty unique and difficult and does fall in that executive role,” Willey said.

Plinsky’s employment agreement for the county administrator job began on Sept. 11, 2019. When she began as county administrator, her base salary was $185,000.

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved a real estate agreement involving the transfer of part of Franklin Cemetery, a historic burial site over 150 years old, where the remains of several early Lawrence settlers are interred, to the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.

The parcel of land, located on Venture Park Drive, cannot be developed commercially due to its history as a cemetery, according to a memo in the commission’s meeting agenda. While the county has been maintaining the property, including mowing the grounds, representatives from St. John’s Church and the Archdiocese approached county staff with a proposal to acquire and manage the land themselves. Under the agreement, the property will be transferred to the Archdiocese for a nominal sum of $10, with the Archdiocese assuming responsibility for title fees and other associated costs.

• Authorized the county administrator to accept a $49,665 Community Development Block Grant, administered by the City of Lawrence, to support the Housing Stabilization Collaborative. This initiative aims to assist individuals in securing affordable housing, including providing rent and utility assistance.

• Approved a legislative priorities statement for 2025. The statement lays out priorities that the county would like state legislators to focus on in their 2025 session, which begins in January.

• Conducted a public hearing for the amended 2024 county budget and adopted it. An amended budget is a regular part of the annual budget process, in which any unanticipated revenues or expenses that were not part of the original 2024 budget are accounted for.

• Reviewed a reimbursement schedule for substance use services in Douglas County, aimed at patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or unable to access detox, residential, and intensive outpatient treatment. The schedule specifies the reimbursement rates for healthcare providers offering these services. As noted in the commission’s meeting agenda, the community partners have already reached agreement on the schedule, and it was presented to the commission solely for informational purposes.