Jesse Osmer

ALPENA — Despite the fact that Alpena County recently had to lay off employees in order to balance the budget, and voters twice rejected a proposed property tax increase, the board of commissioners voted unanimously on Monday to give County Administrator Jesse Osmer a one-time $4,100 bump in his pay.

Other county employees may also receive raises in 2025.

The issue was not on the meeting’s agenda when it was released, but was added at the beginning of the meeting by Commissioner Brenda Fournier.

The commissioners referred to the raise as a stipend that Osmer earned for his hard work to balance the 2025 budget and other actions he has taken while leading the county.

When Osmer was hired in May, he proposed a salary of $82,000, which was about $20,000 less than what the county was offering other candidates. He said at the time that he wanted the lower pay in order to relieve financial pressure on the balance, which was predicted to be well more than $1 million in the red.

Osmer accomplished his goal of balancing the 2025 budget but did do so by utilizing money from other county saving accounts and via job cuts, including to police.

Commissioner Burt Francisco, who voted in favor of the bonus, said he did so because, by the time the roll call vote got to him, there were already enough yes votes to pass the motion. He said his vote was more of a vote of confidence in Osmer, but he still believed the increase in pay wasn’t warranted yet.

“We have an employee who has only been in his position for five months and working on a wage he proposed and I thought it was still too soon to give him a 5% raise,” he said. “I don’t think he has worked long enough to demonstrate his full ability.”

Osmer said when he took the administrator job, he was able to solidify the budget for the administrator’s department. He said working for a lower salary, declining the $13,000 in hospitalization he was entitled to, and reducing spending, his department’s budget showed a significant surplus for the end of the year. The $4,100 came from the surplus and the rest of the money carried over to 2025 and helps the county begin next year a bit better fiscally.

Fournier said Osmer earned every penny of the money the board awarded him. She said Osmer did not ask for the added compensation, but he deserved it.

“He worked his rear end off to balance this budget,” she said. “He started with a low salary and proved himself over and over again. He deserved it. I think he has exceeded our expectations from when we hired him.”

Fournier said Osmer received his job evaluation in November and scored very well, which was also a factor in deciding to move forward with the one-time bonus.

Currently, the county has a hiring freeze in place and is staring at a large deficit in 2026, which is already projected to be more than $600,000.

Commissioner Travis Konarzewski said he knows there will be some public blowback because of the decision to give Osmer a bonus, but he said the one-time wage increase is warranted.

“I know this doesn’t look ideal to the community, but he deserves it,” Konarzewski said. “He takes all of his responsibility very seriously and the amount of time and effort he put into balancing this budget and helping limit the amount of job cuts we had to make was significant.”

In order to balance the budget, seven full-time jobs were cut: three from the maintenance department, a deputy at the county Sheriff’s Office, the county’s deputy on the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team, an employee from the commissioners office, and the county-paid employee for Michigan State University Extension.

Originally, it appeared there would be $500,000 of cuts from the sheriff’s office alone, but a part-time Animal Control employee would also be cut if the full board approves the recommended slate of reductions.

Konarzewski said Osmer’s persistence in finding a way to avoid mass layoffs led to the sheriff’s office only needing to cut $250,000 and save some jobs that could have been cut.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.