The Greene County compensation board met for 11 minutes Monday morning to formulate its recommendation that county elected officials receive 2.5 percent raises.
Mary Jane Fields chaired the meeting. She asked for comments from the elected officials and then fellow board members.
Treasurer Donna Lawson spoke for herself, the auditor and recorder. Each of the elected officials had emailed their representatives on the board their request for a 4 percent raise before the meeting. Lawson cited the need to keep up with changes in office procedures as the biggest justification for a raise.
John Muir, chair of the board of supervisors, said he would support a 2 percent raise for elected officials except the supervisors, and no raise for the five supervisors.
The county’s unionized employees – secondary roads and the sheriff’s office – will receive 2.5 percent raises. Fields pointed out that gasoline costs about half what it cost a year ago, and also noted that the supervisors may have to increase the levy rate because of falling valuations on farmland. Board member Bob Schwarzkopf (on the board representing the auditor) noted that the consumer price index is up less than 1 percent for the year.
The compensation board’s goal has been to keep Greene County’s elected officials’ salaries at 95 percent of the average of their counterparts in counties of similar population. The board agreed they’d rather be on the higher side of the average than the lower. A 2.5 percent raise would meet the 95 percent goal.
The compensation board voted unanimously to recommend 2.5 percent raises. Members of the board, in addition to Fields and Schwarzkopf, are David Morain, Jim Unger, Tom Heater, Denise O’Brien Van and Aaron Schroeder.
The recommendation will be forwarded to the county board of supervisors for consideration at a future meeting. The supervisors cannot approve raises higher than the compensation board recommends. If they decide upon a figure lower than the compensation board’s recommendation, the percent change must be the same for all elected officials. The supervisors can separate their own wage increase and make it a different amount as long as it does not go above what the other officials receive.
According to deputy auditor Billie Jo Hoskins, secretary for the compensation board, a 2.5 percent increase would equate to the following salary increases: supervisors (at each), from $26,993 to $27,668; treasurer, from $53,356 to $54,690; auditor, $53,842 to $55,188; recorder, from $52,854 to $54,174; sheriff, from $69,566 to $71,305; and attorney, from $86,046 to $88,197.
