Compensation panel recommends raises for Linn’s elected officials

CEDAR RAPIDS - 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 Monday 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 recommendations.

The supervisors must act on the recommendations 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,” he added.

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

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

However, the compensation board voted down Stefani's approach and approved O'Brien's.

The other 5 percent recommendation went to Gardner's post, which now pays $109,054.

As for the 3.75 percent recommendation for the other elected positions, all are currently paid $87,622 except for the supervisors, who receive $70,098. A 3.75 percent raise is the same level that 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.