The Blaine County commissioners voted Monday to raise their salaries from $55,434 to $61,522 for fiscal 2013, despite a citizen committee’s recommendation to forego any raise for the next fiscal year.
The committee, made up of 10 residents of Blaine County, came before the commissioners Monday to share their findings from two weeks of research into what a fair salary would be for all county elected officials.
The committee recommended that the salaries for the county clerk, county assessor, treasurer, sheriff and prosecuting attorney were adequate, based on salaries for those positions in other Idaho counties.
The committee report states that county commissioners in Blaine County do make, on average, slightly less than their counterparts, both within the state and in other resort counties. The counties cited were Summit, Colo., Gunnison, Colo., Teton, Wyo., and Summit, Utah.
The report showed that a raise of $3,158.12 would bring Blaine County commissioners to a salary that would match the average salary of Idaho counties with similar populations and the considered resort counties. But the committee recommended that the commissioners not take the recommended raise.
“When we looked at [the economy], we did come to the conclusion that we cannot recommend an increase in your salary at this point,” said committee member John Meyer.
Kevin Laird, another member, added that most of the other Idaho counties did not have an administrator—and Blaine County does. He said the commissioners should be more hands-off and place more responsibility on the county administrator.
“You have a county administrator, and you should use his talents,” Laird said. “You hired him for a reason, and if he’s not doing his job … you [should] implement policy, he takes that policy and puts it in place.”
However, Commissioner Angenie McCleary pointed out that other counties have more administrative staff. She recounted a conversation she had with a Twin Falls County commissioner at an Idaho Association of Counties meeting during which they compared their different staffing levels—Blaine County’s being far lower.
“We kept running through, ‘You don’t have this? You don’t have that? Your county is getting off really well!’” she said. “[Other counties] have different demands and they have different staff structures.”
But the committee maintained that they would like to see the commissioners step back from the job, possibly bumping down their responsibilities to part-time.
“We are not really sure if you are part-time or full-time,” Laird said, but added that former Commissioner Len Harlig used to rack up roughly 100 hours per week doing his duties as a county commissioner.
Laird added that in other states, commissioners are part-time, often don’t get health insurance and have salaries set by the state.
County commissioner salaries were set by the state of Idaho until 1982, when that power was granted to the commissioners themselves.
The commissioners argued that the job is obviously full-time and that the county has high demands of its elected officials.
“The people of this county ask a lot of this body in order to meet the needs of this community,” Commissioner Larry Schoen said. “To do all of the things you expect of us takes time.”
McCleary argued that though the decision was “difficult” and “uncomfortable,” a higher salary would ensure that the position would be “open and attractive” to anyone.
“I don’t think you should have to be of a particular economic status to have this position,” she said. “The county commissioners in Blaine County are paid significantly less than all of the other elected officials. It’s important to look at this disparity.”
McCleary argued that only a raise to roughly $76,000, or the county clerk’s current salary, would correct the disparity, while Commissioner Tom Bowman maintained his position that the public would not support a raise this year.
In the end, McCleary and Schoen voted to approve Schoen’s compromise increase of $6,087.61, which added a 5 percent cost-of-living premium to the benchmark salary determined by the committee.
“These are hard jobs that deserve to be fairly compensated,” said Schoen, who nevertheless said that the decision to vote for a raise was difficult. “[This job] shouldn’t just be for old, wealthy retired people.”
Bowman voted against the increase, saying the public simply will not support it—even though he is resigning his position as of October for a higher-paying job in the private sector. He also suggested that the votes might harm McCleary and Schoen in the next election.
“Although I strongly disagree with what’s about to happen,” he said before the vote, “I admire your courage and conviction.”
Kate Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
