A Waseca County District Court judge ruled in favor of Freeborn County Sheriff Kurt Freitag on Thursday in his appeal against the county for a higher salary.

Judge Carol Hanks ordered Freitag’s 2019 salary be set at $113,952.

“Evidence before this court indicates the county board did not sufficiently take into account the extent of the responsibilities and duties of petitioner’s office, as well as petitioner’s experience, qualifications and performance as the sheriff of Freeborn County,” Hanks wrote in the 20-page judgment.

The decision came after the board in December voted to approve Freitag’s salary at $97,020, a 4.99 increase from his $92,403 pay in 2018. Having initially requested the almost $114,000 salary, Freitag appealed, and the matter came before the judge in May.

Hanks said the county board presented no evidence about what it considered in arriving at the $97,020 salary and did not have any discussion about Freitag’s almost $114,000 salary proposal between its Nov. 27, 2018, workshop and the Dec. 11, 2018, board meeting.

“Inability to articulate any reasoning behind the $97,020 figure gives rise to the inference that there was no reasonable basis for arriving at such a number,” she said. “Ultimately, as there was no discussion at either the (workshop or the meeting) regarding the petitioner’s salary, nor was there any explanation given as to how the $97,020 figure was reached, the court finds the county board acted in an arbitrary fashion in setting petitioner’s 2019 salary.”

She said a county board is required to show it had more than a summary knowledge of the responsibilities and duties of the office and that those responsibilities and duties played a substantial part in the determination of the salary of the office. It is also valid to consider salaries in neighboring counties, along with populations of those counties, assessed valuations and the county’s ability to raise revenue through tax levies. Hanks wrote that the commissioners who testified only had a summary knowledge of the responsibilities of the sheriff.

She said it appears the board based its salary decision on other factors, such as constituent reactions, economic conditions in the county and concern about the amount of the raise, none of which are statutory factors to consider when setting salaries.

She agreed that Freitag’s proposed salary of $113,952 was appropriate, based on comparisons to salaries of sheriffs in other counties and taking into account Freitag’s responsibilities.

“After listening to the county officials’ testimony and comparing to my testimony and others who testified for me, it was clear that the commissioners did not come close to meeting their statutory obligation when setting my salary,” Freitag said about the results of the appeal. “It was stunning to see how little the commissioners know of the Sheriff’s Office. I never knew it was that low until I listened to them testify.”

Freitag said prior to the appeal, all other county workers were at or close to average salaries when compared to other counties except for him.

“It’s nice to be at an average salary,” he said.

The sheriff said moving forward, he hopes he and the board can stay focused and work together on continuing to serve the people of the county.

Freeborn County Board Chairman Chris Shoff said he was disappointed with the judge’s ruling.

“It just means we don’t have the local control after all,” Shoff said. “What does that mean with the other elected official positions?”

He said he was unsure of what the county’s next steps will be or whether the county can decide to appeal the judge’s ruling.

He noted he thinks the ruling will change the amount of discussion happening amongst the board in open meetings, providing more discussion about the reasons for setting salaries at certain levels.