Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess presents his proposed budget to County Council Monday night in Council Chambers. After a lenghtly conversation, Council passed 6-1, with Councilor Pete Sheehey casting the opposing vote, to tentatively approve the County Manager’s 16,975,191 budget. They also tentatively approved a budget item for a salary adjustement for County employees of $186,500 to be divided between the general and non general fund. Sheehey argued that Council approved a major salary adjustment for County employees last year. He said, ‘The County is a good place to work and we have good employees and we want to keep them.’ However, Sheehey said he felt Council could forego a base increase for a year. This isn’t something, Sheehey said, that should be done regularly but he said he could not support an increase to employees’ salary until the County’s revenues go back up. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com