2019 Compensation Board
A 3% wage increase has been proposed by the compensation board for all of the elected officials in Washington County. According to the Iowa State Association of Counties, Washington County is 27th in population, the same as it was 10 years ago. However, a decade ago the rank for the different positions by salary were higher than they are now: the supervisor has gone from 18th to 27th, county attorney from 17th to 20th, auditor from 10th to 16th, recorder from 14th to 19th, sheriff from 17th to 19th, and treasurer from 14th to 18th.
At Thursday’s compensation board meeting, Chris Harmsen opened discussion and suggested 4.5% to regain ground and be competitive, “It bothers me that we’ve slipped compared to where we were 10 years ago compared to the rest of the state. Just doing some basic math, if we were going to try to get back to where we were we would need to increase by 1% more than the rest of the state for seven years in a row to get back to even with where we were a decade ago. Given that the average the last two years has been 3.5% across the state, you know I think it’s a decent bet that the state’s going to average about in that same level again.” Adam Mangold agreed, saying he remembered when zero increases were given in fiscal year 2011 due to a poor economy, “I think times are different. I think times are good. And, I have no problem at all with a flat amount for everybody and I think 4.5% sounds quite reasonable.”
After discussion, the seven-member compensation board voted and recommends a 3% wage increase as well as flat $1,000 adjustments for the recorder, treasurer, sheriff, and attorney.
The proposal was discussed at Tuesday’s Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting but no action was taken. Also, the supervisors are waiting until they vote on the elected official wages to set a wage directive for county departments. The item was tabled by the supervisors and will be on next week’s agenda. The supervisors can now approve up to a 3% increase, but if they decide to lower it then it has to be lowered across the board at the same percentage. The only office they can look at individually is the supervisors’ wage rate.