05/15/2008: "Salary Commission Says Enough Already"

The San Juan County Salary Commission is responsible for setting the salaries of the County Council, and at their May meeting they decided to send a message to the County Council that they would not consider individual requests from a council member for salary adjustments.

The Commission has been lobbied hard in the past when some of the council members have testified before the Commission, for an increase in the salaries the council members receive.

According to official notes of the recent May meeting, the commission expressed concern about the “uncomfortable situation of individual members in the same position (elected council) trying to influence opinion of the commission as to the salary level.“

The last time the commission took up the matter of council salary range, they decide to keep it as is; but at the May meeting they again received two letters from Council members pertaining to the current salary amount.

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The commission passed a resolution that states they will review request for changes to the Council salary only when they receive a request from the County Council -that is, the council agrees to send a formal request; but will not respond to individual requests.

They also agreed that any such requests are required to state the reasons the requests are made.

Part of the problem facing the Salary Commission is that they are appointed by the County Council, and individual requests can be seen as applying pressure to a commission member to influence how they vote on setting a salary range.

At the next commission meeting (December 2008), the Salary Commission will discuss COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustments), and have requested material from staff to aid them in their discussion.

Another action taken at the May meeting was the election of Randy Cornelius, Position #8 on the Commission, as Chairman of the Commission.