Floyd County Compensation Board recommends 7.1% to 10% salary increases for elected officers

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County elected officials will receive between 7.1% and 10% salary increases next fiscal year if the county supervisors go along with the recommendations of the county Compensation Board.

The Compensation Board met for the second time in this recommendation cycle Tuesday afternoon, voting down the first suggested salary increase proposal, approving the second and finishing up in about 45 minutes.

The discussion quickly settled on granting at least a 6% to 7% increase to every elected official, to represent the increase in the cost of living this year, but differences developed in additional increases for some officials.

Troy Jaeger, appoint by County Sheriff Jeff Crooks, reminded the board members that they had decided last year to break up a larger increase for the sheriff into two years. They had recommended 12% for the sheriff last year, and that had been reduced by the Board of Supervisors to 10%.

The larger increase for the sheriff was in response to the “Back the Blue” law signed by the governor in June 2021.

Compensation boards in every county across the state are charged by Iowa Code to “review the compensation paid to comparable officers in other counties of this state, other states, private enterprise, and the federal government” in coming up with pay recommendations for elected officials.

The board must review those other salaries, but the Code does not specify how that information should be used or how the compensation boards must determine their recommendations.

But in the case of county sheriffs, beginning last year, Iowa Code says the compensation board “shall set the sheriff’s salary so that it is comparable to salaries paid to professional law enforcement administrators and command officers of the state patrol, the division of criminal investigation of the department of public safety, and city police chiefs employed by cities of similar population to the population of the county.”

That “shall set” language resulted in many sheriffs across the state getting large double-digit pay increases last year.

Jaeger said he would like the sheriff to get at least another 10% increase this year, pointing out that deputies are paid a percentage of the sheriff’s salary, so an increase to the sheriff is passed along to the deputies as well.

Lisa Garden, who was appointed by County Auditor Gloria Carr, said she would also like to see the auditor receive a larger increase than some others, because of the workload and number of duties that office performs.

She noted that last year the board of supervisors had awarded Carr an extra $1,000 stipend, particularly because of the work she does supporting the supervisors, but that stipend had been ruled improper by a state board during a budget review.

Bret VanAusdall, appointed by County Treasurer Frank Rottinghaus, said his preference would be to grant across-the-board equal percentage increases, unless there were examples of exemplary work performance.

This year in particular there will be three new supervisors, the county treasurer will be new and the county recorder has been in that position less than a year.

Van Ausdall moved that each office be given a 7% pay increase, but that motion failed on a vote of 3 yes, 4 no.

Danielle Ellingson, appointed by County Attorney Rachel Ginbey, then made a motion proposing an 8.1% increase for the county attorney, a 10% increase for the sheriff, 9% for the county auditor, and 7.1% each for the county treasurer, recorder and for each of the supervisors.

That motion passed on a 5-2 vote, with VanAusdall and Kalen Schlader voting no. Schlader is one of two compensation board members appointed by the county supervisors. The other, Cheryl Erb, voted for the recommendation.

The other member of the board is Veronica Litterer, appointed by County Recorder Amy Assink, who also voted to support Ellingson’s proposal.

The county Board of Supervisors now has the choice of approving the recommendation as made or cutting it. If it reduces the recommended pay increases, it must do so by an equal percentage for all the officials. The supervisors cannot approve salaries for elected officials that are higher than those recommended by the Compensation Board.

Although all elected officials much be treated equally if the salary increases are reduced, the board of supervisors does have the power to reduce its own recommended increase to a rate lower than the other elected officials, even going so far as to take no pay increase, as the current board has done in the past.

The new county Board of Supervisors, which takes office Jan. 2, will make a decision on elected officials’ salaries during the county budget process, which must be completed by the end of March.

All together, the increases recommended average out to an 8.1% increase in total pay to the eight elected officials, taking their total salaries from $555,682 to $600,623, an increase of $44,941. Those numbers don’t include other benefits including health insurance, contributions toward the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, etc.