Linn County officials: Let us set our own pay

CEDAR RAPIDS - All five Linn County supervisors want the Legislature to get rid of county compensation boards.

Sen. David Johnson, a Republican from Ocheyedan in far northwest Iowa, agrees, and he has submitted a bill to do just that.

Johnson, a one-time newspaper editor in West Branch, said Monday that the county compensation board is essentially 'a game” that provides a layer of obfuscation, so the public doesn't fully grasp how elected officials get annual pay raises.

'If you're an elected official, you basically ask your best friend to represent you (as a member of the compensation board),” Johnson said. 'It isn't anything that's based on performance. It isn't based on the responsibility you have in your office.”

Johnson said he has introduced the compensation board-killing legislation in the past without success. But he decided to try again after the compensation board in his home county, Osceola, recommended raises of 8 percent for elected officials during a time of slowdown in Iowa's farm economy.

'It just seemed to be so far out in left field,” he said.

He said it reminded him of the 1980s, when one compensation board recommended 10 percent raises while banks were closing and farmers were being forced off the land.

Linn County supervisors will visit the Legislature today to talk to lawmakers about the county's legislative priorities, including getting rid of compensation boards.

Supervisor Ben Rogers said Iowa allows its city councils and state lawmakers to set salaries without compensation boards getting in the mix, so why can't county supervisors do the same?

Johnson agreed.

'You can't tell me with all the other things supervisors worry about, like drainage districts and mental health redesign, that they can't figure out what a reasonable pay should be,” Johnson said.

Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston, immediate past president of the National Association of Counties, said the Iowa Association of Counties opposes doing away with county compensation boards.