The Greene County Board of Supervisors made a change to the process of deciding on county elected officials salaries this year.
According to Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn a new state law allows any county board of supervisors to absorb the function of the county compensation board, which is the entity that determines each elected county official’s salaries with a representative from each office on that board. However, Laehn told the Supervisors before the end of 2024, they needed to either pass a resolution to take over the compensation board’s duties or do nothing and the compensation board remains in place.
The Supervisors passed a resolution last month to assume the compensation board’s responsibilities and then they had several conversations with the elected county officials and heard their presentations. The final decision that the Supervisors recently approved was 3.75 percent across the board increases and Board Chair John Muir thinks the way this topic was handled was done responsibly.
“I think it went smooth. I think it went well. I hope we listened to everybody’s concerns. It’s one of those processes internally that the compensation board, it drag on, there would be a lot of anxiety, both directions. I’m glad that (Supervisor) Dan (Benitz) made the motion and get got it laid to rest and moving on from there.”
Muir explains that the Supervisors looked at the estimated cost of living rate at 3.25 percent, reviewed the full list of all county officials’ salaries across the state and held discussions with each county official. He believes they have done a good job over the past few years getting the elected county officials salaries to where they are competitive with the same positions in other counties.
“I mean we’ve taken some big steps in the past to get everybody up to an average.or respectful of what the state is. And so, we’re just kind of holding right there.’
The new increases in the elected officials salaries will take effect at the beginning of next fiscal year that starts on July 1st.