Yesterday, I attended parts of the Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) meeting. As expected, they approved publishing the annual budget in an upcoming issue of the Gazette. What I did not expect to hear was a discussion on the elected officials’ salaries. Two of the three members of the BOS indicated they plan to vote to freeze elected officials’ salaries. This decision means deputies and assistants working for the County Attorney and the County Sheriff will also have their salaries frozen.
On at least two occasions – once in person and once via letter - I requested that the BOS freeze the salaries of all management personnel with salaries at or above $80K. My logic: If the BOS is freezing elected officials salaries due to the recent bad news about the economy, then let’s share the pain among those county employees receiving the highest salaries.
The combined annual salaries for the eight (8) elected officials is $740,388.70. A 1% increase for all 8 officials would cost the county $7,403.89. A 3% increase – close to the annual cost of living increase – would cost the county $22,211.66. If the BOS denies a 3% increase for elected officials, then the county saves $22K.
On the other hand, if you planned to give every employee with a salary of $80K or more a 3% increase, but later changed your mind and decided to freeze their salaries, you would save the county $108,178.99.
Freezing the salaries of elected officials and NOT freezing the salaries of the highly compensated managers would be unfair. In fact, someone might wonder: Are elected officials with deputies, i.e., the Auditor, Recorder, Treasurer, Sheriff, and County Attorney being treated like “second class employees”? --Joel @ 3:25pm