Del. James Edmunds held a meeting Jan. 3 with county leaders and citizens, discussing items relevant to salaries, broadband and the Virginia budget.

Edmunds represents Virginia’s 60th district, which includes Charlotte County.

He said he met with the county commissioner of revenue, the treasurer, the sheriff and with the county’s department of social services.

Edmunds said the main topic was starting salaries, which he argued needed to be raised to maintain county employment and said is “desperately needed.”

He said low salaries does not only extend to incoming employees, but stretches to all aspects of local government.

“A lot of the constitutional officers’ staff are severely underpaid, in my opinion,” Edmunds said, citing high overturn rates in local government employment. “We just need to work on bringing that up so that they’re not just using it as a stopgap till they find something else. And it’s very hard for all of those constitutional officers to train those folks and now they’re just going to leave when they get a little better offer.”

Edmunds said the social services office provided statistics on demographics of those who live in the county and spoke about starting staff challenges.

Edmunds said this challenge could be addressed in the state budget.

Edmunds said the citizen meeting was held at the Keysville Library. He said approximately 10 people attended who brought up need for broadband connection and flood control in areas of the county.

Edmunds said the state approves a budget each year. The budget process starts in the state’s appropriations committee, which Edmunds said he is not a member.

Edmunds said the budget is developed through the Virginia General Assembly session, and the goal is to typically approve the budget at the assembly’s last session, scheduled this year for Feb. 23.

The session began Jan. 9.