Letter: Fiscally responsible going from 5 to 3

The current five Linn County supervisors are handsomely paid $103,888 each plus benefits.

Linn County is the second largest county by population in Iowa. Yet, our supervisors are paid two times more per resident versus the next closest in size; Polk (Des Moines), Scott (Davenport) and Blackhawk (Waterloo) supervisors.

How has this happened? The Linn County Compensation Board, whose seven members are appointed by elected county officials, is responsible for overseeing supervisors' pay. Their guidelines as outlined in Section 331.907 of the Iowa Code state: ‘The County Compensation Board annually shall review the compensation paid to comparable offices in other counties of the state and other states, private enterprise and the Federal Government'.

Our compensation board has failed their fiduciary responsibility to maintain fair and equitable pay for our supervisors compared to other top counties supervisors and consequently, salaries have ballooned. How can this be remedied? A) The compensation board can reduce the salaries. This hasn't happened and most likely won't since all members are appointed by those who benefit the most; B) Supervisors could opt to go ‘part-time'. This was done by the previous board of supervisors following the flood of 2008 only to have them change their minds later re-establishing their current pay; C) Reduce the number of supervisors to three and re-draw geographies to each include rural county responsibility, while maintaining the current salaries.

Vote to reduce supervisors from five to three.

Tom Pyron

Cedar Rapids