Compensation board recommends pay increases for Floyd County elected officials

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County elected officials will receive salary increases ranging from 2.6 percent to 4.8 percent if the Board of Supervisors accepts the recommendations of the county compensation board.

The compensation board is composed of members appointed by the county elected officials, and their job is to come up with salary recommendations that take into consideration comparable salaries in other counties in Iowa, in other states, in the federal government as well as private business.

Board members discussed various proposals Tuesday afternoon at the board’s second meeting this year before agreeing on the final recommendation.

After considering various percentage increases that took into account inflation rates, cost of living increases and other factors, board member Lisa Garden, appointed by the county auditor, suggested a plan that gave straight dollar-figure increases to each of the elected officers.

That idea quickly drew favor from other board members, although a vote on her original dollar amounts failed and members offered suggestions for changes.

Charley Thomson, the member appointed by the county attorney, said the county attorney’s salary in Floyd County is significantly below the rankings of the other elected officials.

In the current fiscal year the county sheriff, treasurer and recorder are ranked between 24th and 26th in salary among those offices in all the other Iowa counties. The county auditor’s pay is ranked 30th, and the county attorney’s pay is ranked 38th.

Thomson suggested changing the county attorney’s increase from the proposed $2,800 to $4,800.

Cheryl Erb, appointed by the county supervisors, suggested increasing the proposed $400 increase for the supervisors to at least $500, but Kalen Schlader, also appointed by the supervisors, said that still wouldn’t even be a cost-of-living increase.

Veronica Litterer, appointed by the county recorder, suggested increasing the supervisors’ pay by $1,000.

With those changes made, the proposal passed.

The Board of Supervisors can approve the new salaries as recommended or they can reduce them.

They cannot increase salaries above the recommendations, and if they decrease the recommendations they must do so for an equal percentage for each office, except that they can reduce their own salaries by a greater amount than the other offices.

Supervisors will approve county elected officials’ salaries along with any wage changes for all other county employees during budget discussions in the next couple of months.

The county budget must be finalized in March, and new pay levels will take effect at the beginning of the new fiscal year, July 1, 2019.