Committee Keeps Original Plan

When the committee set the plan to recommend that the county board members keep the same salary that they currently have for the next decade, the idea did not sit over very well with the full county board and therefore, it was sent back to the committee, in hopes that they would consider the possibility of other alternatives. After it was sent back, the committee did discuss the different alternatives that could be but after discussing it thoroughly, they decided to keep their original recommendation, which is to keep the salary the same for the next ten years.

The full board chose to send the recommendation back to the committee during the month of April. The recommendation was to basically freeze the salary of the board members, a salary that has been set a decade ago. Each board member earns approximately $2,400 each year and can also earn extra money for work that they perform for the county and for attending different meetings that are typically held twice per month. If the recommendation is set, it will take ten more years for the salaries to be altered once again but the problem is that there are some members who simply believe that two decades is too long of a time to freeze a particular salary, which is why the issue was sent to the committee to work out. However, when the board meets for a meeting on the 30^th of May, they will, yet again, receive the same recommendation, as the committee has rejected the possibility of any salary increases.

One board member, Dean Grimm, says that he did believe it was necessary to freeze the salaries once again, although he also admits that he understands why some are concerned about raising salaries too. He said it is an important process that generally needs to be thought over for quite a bit of time beforehand. Another board member, John Ackerman, believes that if the salary remains too slow, some people will choose to leave the board and then it will only be attractive to individuals who are already retired and just looking for something extra to do. In the meantime, the Vice Chair of the Board, Jim Carius, says that the people on the committee should not be overly concerned with the amount of money they are earning and whether or not that amount would increase. Carius says that people should not be running for money and should only be doing it as a way to help serve for the community. The board has already rejected the possibility of increasing the salary of the committee members, which would have resulted in members receiving more than $3,500 each year while serving as a board member.