Morgan County Commissioners receive feedback regarding the '457 Benefit' from Morgan County employees

At the recent November 5th meeting of the Morgan County Board of County Commissioners, all 3 commissioners were present. Starting things off was the public comments segment, where several Morgan County employees, and even one former employee, including Sheriff Dave Martin and Undersheriff Jon Horton, spoke at the podium.

The main topic of concern was for those employees who receive the 457 County Deferred Contribution Benefit, versus those who receive the Family Health Benefits. According to those employees who spoke to the commissioners, the issue was that those who receive the Plan A Family coverage receive an additional amount of over $1,300 per month in benefits compared to employees who do not need that type of coverage. A request to ‘grandfather’ in current participants into the 457 benefit, as other cost-saving measures could be implemented by reducing non-essential operational expenses.

The consensus of the employees is that their longevity, loyalty, and institutional knowledge should be considered, as they feel undervalued with the elimination or reduction of the 457 for current participants, and that this could negatively affect future potential new hires for Morgan County. There is a feeling that newer employees seem more valued than those with many years of service. Clerk & Recorder Kevin Strauch did mention his gratitude to the commissioners for the health coverage that many of his employees can now afford. That was notwithstanding what the other employees expressed concerns about.

With what had been discussed, Commissioner Jon Becker moved to have the 2027 Proposed Preliminary Budget moved from that end of the meeting up to the next item on the agenda. Finance Director Jessica Trusty sat at the table mic for this item. Following her presentation was the public comments segment for this item, where former employee, now a citizen, Michelle Cavelli spoke about some concerns regarding following the most up-to-date version of the budget that is available to the public.

Following that, the commissioners addressed many of the great points that had been made, as Commissioner Jon Becker acknowledged that there were many of them. Commissioner Kelvin Bernhardt mentioned the drastic budget deficit, but that there should be more discussion about the cutting of some of the retirement benefits. Commissioner Tim Malone mentioned that there are 63 participants who are affected by the discontinuation of the 457 benefit program. He did answer to the Board of Commissioners opting into the benefits was that they are the only elected officials that are term-limited, and why they did not get graduated into the program like other employees. Commissioner Becker apologized if communications have not been what others expected, as he wants all county employees to feel as though they are being heard. He feels that there is a lot of fluff to be cut from the budget, as it didn’t look good from the beginning. He also never felt that elected officials should get the 457 benefits, but others did not agree, as he doesn’t want to pit people against each other.

There were some more discussions, and during this part of the meeting, there were a couple of tense moments, but nothing got out of hand by any means, as things remained civil. This section of the meeting lasted for more than an hour and 10 minutes, with no official motions that were needed.

There are a lot of details to this, as the recording of the meeting can be viewed online via a YouTube video. To view the entire Morgan County Board of County Commissioners meeting from Thursday, November 5, 2026, go to the county’s website at morgancounty.colorado.gov. Click on the down arrow next to ‘Elected Officials’ on the top tab on the homepage. Then scroll down to the side arrow next to ‘Commissioners’ and click on ‘2026 Agendas and Meetings’. Then on that page, click on ‘Watch 11-05-26 BCC Meeting’ on the right side. There will be an 8-digit passcode underneath the title that you will need to enter in order to view the video on YouTube. Once you enter that passcode, the entire meeting will be available to view. Following the public comments, and the Preliminary Budget portion of the meeting, the rest of the meeting continued, following a short recess. The rest of that meeting will be covered in a separate report.