Views from the Linn County Auditor

Elected Officials' Compensation: Lets review some facts

On January 8^th, the Linn County Compensation Board met to determine the future salaries of Linn County’s eight elected officials and their deputies.  Aside from reporters from the Gazette and the Marion Times, I do not believe any member of the public attended, i.e., any member that was not a county employee or a potential candidate for office.  That said, the meeting was held at 4pm – which is not the best time to have a public meeting.

The Compensation Board’s duty is to “review the compensation paid to comparable officers in other counties of this state, other states, private enterprise and the federal government”.

I presented the information below, which was gathered from http://www.gazetteonline.com/section/datacentral and from the Cedar Rapids Public Schools.  While I may not have followed the letter of the law, I think some of the jobs I listed require management and administration skills similar, i.e., “comparable” to the Auditor, Recorder, and Treasurer.

My other reason for doing this comparison was to present factual information on salaries in the marketplace, i.e., the Corridor.  I was surprised to learn how many taxpayer funded positions receive a salary equal to or higher than mine.  I bet you will be surprised, too.

Salary Comparisons prepared by Joel Miller – 8 January 2008

102 - # of public employees paid more than Auditor, Treasurer, and Recorder in the governments of Linn and Johnson counties and the cities of Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty.  For example,

• $169,950 – James Prosser – Cedar Rapids City Manager – highest paid city employee – 1^st overall
• $128,544 – Harold Denton – Linn County Attorney – highest paid elected official and highest paid county employee – 4^th overall
• $122,241 – Dale Hellig – Iowa City Assistant City Manager – tied for 5^th overall
• $122,241 – Kevin O’Malley – Iowa City Finance Director – tied for 5^th overall
• $111,779 – Doug Boothroy – Iowa City Housing & Inspection Services Director – tied for 12^th overall with 5 other Iowa City employees
• $101,504 – Lori Berkema – Cedar Rapids Library Director
• $101,504 – Julianne Sina – Cedar Rapids Parks & Recreation Director
• $101,504 – Casey Drew – Cedar Rapids Finance Director
• $100,474 – Wesley Nelson – Marion Finance Director
• $97,213 – Stephen Tucker – Linn County Finance Director – formerly a position in the Auditor’s Office until 1983
• $96,657 – Scott Labus – Cedar Rapids City Assessor
• $91,387 – Garth Fagerbakke – Linn County Facilities Manager – formerly a deputy position in the Auditor’s Office
• $90,577 – Susan Kling – Marion Library Director
• $89,876 – Susan Vavroch – Cedar Rapids Treasury Operations Manager
• $89,190 – Marian Karr – Iowa City City Clerk

64 - # of Cedar Rapids Public School employees paid more than the Auditor, Treasurer, and Recorder.  For example,

• $159,203 – David Markward – Superintendent
• $123,505 – Jay Marino and Christine Rauscher – Assistant Superintendents
• $119,147 – Gregg Petersen and Sandra Stephen – Executive Administrators
• $116,510 – Suzanne Blomme and Steve Graham – Executive Directors
• $94,373 – Six (6) High School Associate Principals
• $89,804 – Six (6) Associate Directors

$89,160 – Salary of Joel Miller – Senior Project Manager - Siemens ILG - Cedar Rapids – in calendar year 2001

4,544 - # of State of Iowa employees paid more in FY07 than the Linn County Auditor, Treasurer, and Recorder in FY08.

$84, 455.37 – Current salary of Linn County Auditor, Treasurer, and Recorder.

$77,792 – Average wage paid to 310 new Rockwell employees per www.gazetteonline.com article published 15 November 2007

$63,341 – Current salary of Linn County Deputy Auditor of Accounting – responsible for county accounts payable, payroll, and property taxes

--Joel @ 6:15pm