Daviess County officeholders to receive salary increase in 2007
Dec 22, 2005 | Courthouse News |
The Daviess County salary commission convened on Nov. 29 and approved a salary increase for county paid officeholders elected in 2006, with the increase taking effect in 2007. Offices affected by the vote at this meeting are the presiding commissioner, county clerk, recorder and prosecuting attorney. The salary commission also authorized the county commissioners to award a cost-of-living increase at their discretion.
A statutory increase in the base salary for county paid officeholders was triggered when the assessed valuation of Daviess County increased from 79 million dollars in 2004 to 92 million dollars in 2005. When the assessed valuation of Daviess County exceeded $86 million, a new bracket of salaries was authorized by state statute.
One way for the salary commission to avoid voting a salary increase would have been to apply a lower percentage than 100% to the base salary set by the statute to the four officeholders affected by this year’s vote. This would require a two-thirds majority.
In order to maintain equity between officeholders, however, the 2007 salary commission would have to apply the same lower percentage to the rest of the county officeholders at the next salary commission meeting two years from now. This would create an unequal standing between officeholders for the next two years, and there would be no guarantee that the same percentage would be approved for the remaining officeholders at the next salary commission meeting.
Complicating the salary situation are the cost-of-living adjustments, which, once given, cannot be taken away. For the presiding commissioner, for example, the base salary by statute for 2006 is $25,760, but the officeholder will actually receive an additional $3,268.68 due to previous cost-of-living increases that cannot be taken away. In this example, the officeholder will actually receive 112.7% of the base salary authorized by statute for 2006. This example holds true with varying percentages throughout the slate of officeholders. Every officeholder will be paid more than 100% of the authorized statutory base salary when cost-of-living adjustments are included. The cost-of-living increases are calculated separately from salaries for officeholders, and the same cost-of-living increases must be granted to all county employees.
The salary commission meets every two years to set officeholder salaries. The salary commission’s decisions must be applied to officeholders as a whole and cannot be applied to individual offices. This fact makes it nearly impossible for the salary commission to address some existing situations where officeholders have received an unequal number of cost-of-living adjustments; some have received as many as six cost-of-living increases, while the recorder has received only two.
One reason for the unequal number of cost-of-living adjustments is that not all officeholders take office at the same time, and the cost-of-living increases are applied when they take office.
Another reason for the inequity is that when the Circuit Clerk and Recorder split from one office into two, the county commission maintained that the Recorder’s Office was a new office and was not in existence at the time that cost-of- living adjustments were made. Concerning this situation, there is an appeal pending on a lawsuit which was filed against the Daviess County Commission by the Missouri Recorders Association on behalf of Daviess County Recorder Georgia Maxwell.
The motion to set the salaries, after amendment, as made by Presiding Commissioner David Tolen, is essentially this: The base salaries for the offices for which the term begins in 2007 shall be set at 100% of the salary allowed by statute, as tied to the county’s assessed valuation. Further, salaries shall be adjusted by cost-of-living allowances each year on that office’s date of incumbency by the same percentage increase, if any, as awarded to all county employees. All cost-of-living adjustments shall be calculated on the base salary and added to the salary of the previous year. Tolen commented that his motion was intended to implement essentially the same decision that the commission approved at the salary commission meeting two years ago.
David Holcomb seconded the motion. The motion passed, 6-2, with Reta Rains and Georgia Maxwell opposing the motion, and Julia Filley abstaining.
At one point in the discussion, Prosecuting Attorney Julia Filley moved to table the motion pending further research as to whether cost-of-living increases could indeed be taken away from officeholders, but the motion did not receive approval. Filley abstained from the final vote, stating that she did not have enough information upon which to base a decision.
The meeting was videotaped by Danny Bridgeman.
Officeholders attending yesterday’s meeting were David Tolen, David Holcomb, and Danny Heldenbrand, commissioners; Kevin Heldenbrand, sheriff; Reta Rains, treasurer; Betty Harmison, assessor; Julia Filley, prosecuting attorney; Georgia Maxwell,recorder; and Linda Steward, county clerk. Also in attendance were Liz Wilkinson from the Gallatin North Missourian and Danny Bridgeman, who was videotaping the proceeding. David McWilliams, coroner, and Vicki Corwin, public administrator, were not present at the meeting.
The salaries authorized by state statute due to the valuation increase and actual salaries for 2005 and 2006 are as follows:
Statutory Salary 2000 Statutory Salary 2006 Actual 2005 Actual 2006
Presiding Commissioner $24,440 $25,760 $27,708.68 $29,128.68
Associate Commissioner $22,440 $23,760 $24,952.68 $26,272.68
Prosecuting Attorney $41,000 $43,000 $46,590.00 $48,590.00
Sheriff $39,000 $40,000 $43,438.00 $44,438.00
Recorder N/A $36,000 $35,768.00 $37,768.00
Assessor $34,000 $36,000 $39,058.00 $41,058.00
Collector $34,000 $36,000 $37,298.00 $39,298.00
County Clerk $34,000 $36,000 $38,544.00 $40,544.00
Coroner $9,500 $10,000 $10,573.00 $11,073.00
Public Administrator $15,000 $20,000 $21,707.00 $21,707.00
