County pay raises, restructuring advised

Kootenai County’s nine elected officials should get substantial pay increases, but the county should also consider changing its form of government so it’s run more like a business, a citizens committee recommended Wednesday.

The Kootenai County commissioners created the committee in June to recommend whether salaries should be given to them, the sheriff, prosecutor, assessor, clerk, treasurer and coroner. All nine should get significant pay increases, up to $14,900 in one instance, according to the committee.

The nine-member committee, consisting mostly of local business people and two residents picked from the jury pool, expanded the focus and took on the current structure of the county government, which they characterized as having “inherent inefficiencies.”

Members recommended expanding the commission from three to five members and changing their status and pay to part time. These commissioners would act as a board of directors and hire a county administrator who would, as a chief executive officer, oversee the day-to-day management of the government.

That administrator would then have the power to hire the clerk, assessor, treasurer and coroner – positions that are currently filled by election. The sheriff and prosecuting attorney would remain elected positions.

Those changes would ensure that the county is run like a “big business” and reflect its size and complexity, the committee said. It also suggested that the commission create another advisory committee to research alternate forms of government and send a recommendation to voters.

“We clearly went further than we needed to, but we felt that internally there is a lot of concern about structure,” said committee member Jon Hippler of Mountain West Bank.

In interviews and surveys during the review process, current and former elected officials raised concerns about the present form of government. Newly elected Commissioner Katie Brodie told the committee that managing the county is like “rowing with one oar.”

Hippler said hiring a county administrator and reducing the number of elected officials would diminish the “empires” that currently make cooperation among county departments a “constant battle” and limit the county’s ability to give residents the “best bang for their tax dollar.”

Commissioners Gus Johnson and Brodie support putting some type of government proposal on a ballot and letting voters decide whether a change is needed. Commissioner Rick Currie said that county elections are too expensive and that he would prefer to have another Idaho county take the idea of changing the form of government to voters first. If it’s successful in another county, then Currie said it may be worth asking Kootenai County voters.

The county had an administrator until 2001 when the commission eliminated the $80,000-per-year position, saying they were elected to do the job. Administrator Tom Taggart had been in the position for 5½ years and acted as a liaison between the departments and the commission.

Johnson said a new form of government would only work if the administrator were given more of a day-to-day management role with the commission making policy and budget decisions. He disagreed with the committee’s recommendation about the prosecutor and sheriff remaining elected positions. He said they would have to become hired positions, similar to the structure in Idaho cities.

The committee also recommended large salary increases for the nine elected officials, including commissioners, who will make the final decision on the salaries in coming months as they finalize the fiscal year 2006 budget.

The prosecutor got the largest suggested increase – $14,847 – which would bring the total salary up to $93,000. The sheriff was next with a $14,730 recommended increase, for a total of $80,000.

The commissioners, assessor, clerk and treasurer now make $53,514 a year. Under the recommendation, the commissioners would get a $13,486 bump, to $67,000. The others would get an additional $11,486 increase, for a total annual salary of $65,000.

The coroner got the smallest recommended increase, $4,486, for a total salary of $58,000.

In June the commission adopted the HayGroup study, which resulted in county employees getting more than a $1 million in salary and benefit adjustments to keep county pay in line with other Northwest governments and similarly sized businesses.

About half of the county’s 680 employees received wage increases – jumps that ranged from 2 cents an hour to $4 an hour. Some sheriff’s deputies saw the largest adjustments, with one patrol officer getting an $8,408 annual increase.

The remaining employees didn’t see any adjustment in their paychecks. No employee received a decrease in pay.

The review committee’s recommendation for elected officials’ salaries is similar to one of the HayGroup suggestions that averaged the current pay rate of elected officials in Ada and Bannock counties. Ada is about twice the size of Kootenai County while Bannock County has half the population.

“It’s a very hard position for the commissioners to set their own pay,” Johnson said. “It’s always a headline in the newspaper.”