Citizen panel may look at officials’ pay

Local residents may get a chance to decide how much to pay Kootenai County’s elected officials.

County commissioners are expected to decide today whether to create a citizens review committee that would recommend pay for the three commissioners, sheriff, clerk, treasurer, assessor, prosecutor and coroner. The commissioners would retain the final say.

Currently, the commissioners determine how much each elected official is paid.

“It’s very difficult to give yourself a pay raise,” Commissioner Katie Brodie said.

Commission Chairman Gus Johnson said a study recommends giving elected officials a “huge increase,” although he declined to give specific figures.

Because the study recommends such a large pay increase for elected officials, Johnson said, it makes sense to form a citizens advisory committee to look at the history of each elected office and its job description and responsibilities.

“We need to have the community be an active partner,” Johnson said.

Commissioners also are expected to vote on recommendations in a $60,000 study that reviewed salary and benefit levels of all 680 county employees.

The California-based consultant has been working with the county since September to compare county employees’ wages and benefits with those of workers in similar jobs in the Northwest.

The new pay rates, if approved, would be reflected in employees’ June 17 paychecks.

Commissioners aren’t making the consultant’s recommendations public now because they want county employees to know what their new salaries would be before they read it in the newspaper. Johnson said commissioners will talk only in generalities at today’s meeting when deciding whether to adopt the recommendations. He said he doesn’t expect to make the specific salary and benefit information public for at least another week.

Commissioners got the idea for the citizens committee after chatting with Spokane County commissioners in March. Spokane County has a similar committee, but in Washington, the committee’s recommendation is final and the commissioners have no say, Brodie said.

Because this is a new idea in Kootenai County, the commissioners want to retain some control.

The voluntary committee would include several business people who have experience with salaries and employees. The county randomly would select the rest of the committee from the jury pool.