Board of Supervisors Deliberates on Elected Officials’ Pay Raise

Oskaloosa, Iowa – On Monday morning, the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors met in regular session.

The Supervisors tackled the question concerning elected officials’ compensation and a recommended 20% across-the-board raise for all elected officials, as presented by the Compensation Board.

Supervisor Chuck Webb agreed with the Compensation Board’s goal of creating pay differences between elected officials and their deputies. “So there’s a reason for people to want to run for those positions. But I think 20% is a little too high.”

“It’s always a hard decision to make these calls,” added Steve Wanders on the variety of input the Supervisors received on the potential pay increase.

“We don’t know where the income is going to be next year,” said Webb. “We got to deal with the numbers have we got a hard decision to make.”

“I think we just need to get our elected officials up to average, we’re just not gonna be all one year. Over the years it’s fell behind a ways,” added Wanders.

Despite acknowledging the Compensation Board’s recommendation, opinions varied, with suggestions to moderate the increase to 15%, citing past adjustments and financial prudence amidst uncertain fiscal projections.

Mahaska County Chair Mark Groenendyk shared that the Supervisor’s pay can be “completely separate. It can be reduced more than everybody else’s.”

Groenendyk used numbers provided by ICIS for average pay across Iowa. For elected officials, the Supervisors ranked 57th, the county attorney 61st, the auditor 84th, the recorder 85th, and the treasurer 86th.

Groenendyk also referenced how narrow the budget is to maintain the 25% balance on the books, as the State of Iowa requires.

Groenendyk then asked his counterparts, “I guess in that 15%, you want to include the supervisors or it can be lowered differently.”

“We’re at $36,000 a year. The 15% on that’s not a big number,” said Webb about increasing the Supervisor’s pay.

“My motion would include the Supervisors,” said Webb.

The motion passed unanimously.

Later in the meeting, as reported earlier, the Supervisors considered a hiring freeze due to concerns about dropping below the state-mandated 25% cash-on-hand fund balance.

“Our revenue comes in, our expenditures are not exceeded, we’ll be fine,” said Groenendyk.

The motion to table the hiring freeze was made, and the Supervisors moved on without taking action on the agenda item.