Floyd County Comp Board makes elected officials salary recommendations

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Compensation Board will recommend salary increases of 4.66% for most county elected officials, and 9.44% for the sheriff and county attorney, for the new fiscal year that will start July 1, 2025.

The Comp Board members made the recommendations with the knowledge that the Board of Supervisors could follow their recommendations or ignore them completely, and knowing that it isn’t their job to decide what the county can afford, but to make recommendations based on what employees in similar positions are earning.

The vote to approve the recommendation, proposed by board Chair Kalen Schlader, passed by a vote of 5-2 after about 40 minutes of discussion.

Lisa Garden, one of the “nay” votes, said the board was not following the requirements of state law regarding how the salary recommendations were developed. She had suggested that the board vote on a recommendation for each elected official individually.

As County Auditor Gloria Carr had explained last week at the board’s first meeting, the board is not supposed to consider what the cost of the pay increases would be, how it would effect taxpayers, what other people in the county are getting for pay raises, or anything else other than what those officials should make based on comparisons with similar positions in other counties, at the state level and federal level, and in private business.

The Compensation Board’s job is to make a recommendation based on comparable positions, then it’s the county Board of Supervisor’s job to decide what the county budget can afford, Carr had said.

For example, Garden, who was appointed to the board by the county auditor, said she compared the auditor’s salary to the average salaries of county auditors in Iowa, salaries for private positions with similar duties as identified by job sites, federal government positions and similar positions in Minnesota.

Based on those, the county auditor should get a raise of anywhere from 10% to 25%, she said.

“I get that the county can’t afford a 20% increase, but that’s not what we’re to judge. We’re supposed to do comparables,” Garden said. It’s up to the supervisors to take that information and make a salary decision.

Other members of the Comp Board, however, again said that making salary increase recommendations based on some of those comparisons was not realistic.

Troy Jaeger, appointed by the sheriff, said he has a hard time justifying comparing county salaries with federal salaries.

Kurt Herbrechtsmeyer, appointed by the county attorney, repeated his admonition that comparisons beyond the local job market are meaningless.

“To look at other states, it’s borderline ridiculous,” he said.

Jerry Joerger, who was appointed by the supervisors, said he looked at a 3% increase as a good increase in this economy.

Schlader said his recommendation of 4.66% and 9.44% increases was based on where Floyd County officials stood compared with officials in counties of population sizes directly above and below Floyd County, and an attempt to move them up that scale.

Joerger, who was the other vote against Schlader’s winning proposal, said he really thinks the attitude in the county is that the increases can’t be that high.

Here are the salary recommendations for elected officials approved by the Compensation Board (presented as position, current salary, and proposed salary):

Attorney – $86,352, $94,409.

Sheriff – $113,356, $123,932.

Treasurer – $78,178, $81,821.

Auditor – $79,441, $83,143.

Recorder – $77,681, $81,301.

Supervisor (each of three) – $40,098, $41,967.

The county attorney and sheriff are proposed for a 9.33% increase, and the others are proposed for a 4.66% increase.

The recommendations and the board member’s work will be sent to the Board of Supervisors. In the past, the supervisors could accept the recommendations or lower them, and if they lowered them they had to be reduced by the same percentage for all the other officials.

Now, under a new law, the supervisors can raise or lower the salary increases of all the officials individually, regardless of the Comp Board recommendation.