Meeting to evaluate Linn County supervisors' salaries set for Feb. 10

The Linn County Compensation Board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10.

The Compensation Board will decide whether to give the county's 10 elected officials a raise, and if so, how much. Then the supervisors will decide whether to accept or lower the recommended pay increases.

Serving on the Compensation Board has in recent years meant standing in the middle of a political firestorm - at least for a week or two. The board voted in 2008 to give supervisors a 6 percent raise, sparking a controversy over supervisor salaries that lasted more than a year.

The panel's annual meeting in 2009 was closely watched, and after hours of deliberation, the board chose to freeze supervisor pay at $87,622. After the public outcry, the supervisors then made themselves officially part-time in order to cut their pay to $70,000.

The seven member panel will have one new member this year - Nichole Lee, a human resources specialist who lives in Fairfax. She will replace Allen Merta as one of the two supervisor appointees.

Mary Quass, a business owner who lives in Mount Vernon, has chosen to stay on the board and was reappointed by the supervisors Monday. The remaining five members, and the offices that appointed them are:

• Steve Jackson Sr. - County Attorney

• Phil Klinger - Treasurer

• David O'Brien - Recorder

• Larry Wear - Auditor

• Ray Stefani II - Sheriff

The panel will meet at 4 p.m. in the supervisors' boardroom at Westdale Mall. The Johnson County Compensation Board will meet Jan. 26.

Some Compensation Boards around Iowa have already made their recommendations.

The Black Hawk County Compensation Board decided in mid-December to go with 3 percent raises, though the supervisors there decided to freeze elected official salaries. Cedar County's Compensation Board recommended a 3 percent raise in December, and Winneshiek County's recommended a 2 percent raise for all elected officials except Auditor Ben Steines, for whom they recommended a 1 percent raise because he has only been in office one year.