A report from the St. Cloud Times shows that six of the nine elected Stearns County officials have taken — or signed up for — a voluntary unpaid one-day furlough to help the county face its budget problems.

All the un-elected county employees -- 850 of them, ranging from janitors to deputies to the county administrator -- were required by the five-member elected county board to take one-day unpaid leaves to help balance the budget.

This story was published on Sunday in St. Cloud, and I'm betting the three non-participating elected folks quickly get on board.

Said the paper:

As of last Wednesday, County Attorney Janelle Kendall and Auditor-Treasurer Randy Schreifels had either taken a furlough day or signed up to do so, according to Steve Hammes, assistant to the county administrator.

So had four of the five county commissioners: Vince Schaefer, Don Otte, DeWayne Mareck and Mark Sakry.

“I just felt that if we’re asking that of our employees, we should lead by example,” Mareck said.

Commissioner Leigh Lenzmeier, County Recorder Diane Grundhoefer and Sheriff John Sanner had not scheduled furloughs as of Sept. 30.

Sanner and Grundhoefer both said they plan to take one this month.

Furloughs for the non-elected employees were among the $2.5 million in cuts the county board made this year. The furloughs were expected to save $860,000 this year,  or about 2 percent of annual payroll costs.