Compensation panel recommends raises for Linn County elected officials

How to raise the salaries of Linn County's elected officials and their top assistants, not whether they should be raised, was the matter most discussed at this afternoon's annual meeting of the county's compensation board.

After two years of frozen salaries, the board voted to recommend 5 percent raises for County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden and Sheriff Brian Gardner for the fiscal year beginning July 1. County supervisors and the treasurer, auditor, and recorder would see 3.75-percent raises if the supervisors adopt the board's recommendations.

The supervisors must act on the board's recommendation before certifying the county's next budget in March. They may reduce or eliminate the suggested salary adjustments, which also affect the pay of the top deputy positions in each elected official's department – about 80 positions in all.

Last year, the supervisors rejected a recommended 4.5-percent raise for all the officials except Vander Sanden. Because state law limits the pay of county attorneys in counties with less than 200,000 population, the compensation panel was limited to a 3.25 recommendation, also eliminated by supervisors.

With Linn County expected to top 200,000 when the 2010 Census becomes official in March, compensation panel members want to bring his current $133,364 salary in line with that of a district court judge – a raise of about 10 percent. But board member David O'Brien didn't want to do it all at once, fearing the public's reaction to a double-digit raise.

“A 10-percent increase I think is just asking the board to say, ‘We can't live with that,'” O'Brien said. He called a 10-percent raise for Vander Sanden “an admirable goal. I think it should be done as a two-step process.”

Supervisor Linda Langston told the compensation board O'Brien was “absolutely right. I think the way for us to do that is an incremental approach. The system is designed and constrained by politics.”

“Effective leaders have to make tough decisions,” said board member Ray Stefani II, moving for a 10-percent raise.

But the compensation board voted down Stefani's approach and approved O'Brien's. With less debate, the board then approved a 5-percent recomendation for Gardner's post, which now pays $109,054.

The compensation board then approved a 3.75-percent recommendation for the other elected positions. All except the supervisors, who receive $70,098 a year, currentlyget $87,622. The 3.75-percent raise would the same that the county workers will receive.

“These people, who are just as devoted and dedicated as the bargaining-unit people, have gotten nothing” in the way of raises, Stefani said.

Supervisors' pay has been at the same level since 2009, when supervisors cut their salary by $16,000 after two additional positions were added to their board.

A one-percent across-the-board pay raise for the 80 positions under the compensation board's authority would have cost the county about $23,000 a year. It takes an increase of about $90,000 to raise the county's tax levy rate by a penny.