One penny per hour raise recommended for elected officials
by Duane Williams, KLCB 1230 AM Libby News Radio
August 6, 2009
The Elected Officials Salary Committee approved a recommendation that elected officials receive only one penny per hour raise for fiscal year 09-10.
The raise is computed on a standard 2,080 annual hours worked. That’s a 40 hour week over 52 weeks. The one cent increase is enough to kick in the longevity raise for the Lincoln County Sheriffs office.
In addition to the one cent raise, elected officials will be getting a one percent longevity raise. A motion to deny the automatic one per cent longevity raise for the elected officials failed in a 5 to 6 vote. Again, along party lines, Libby commissioner Berget voted to deny the one percent. Konzon and Roose voted to allow the longevity raise.
In addition to a majority vote by the salary committee, any motion needs the vote of two commissioners to pass. The salary committee is made up mostly of the very people who benefit from its recommendation. The commissioners only have that committee because they are required by law to do so. They can still vote on the budget any way they want to. It just makes it a little harder as far as public opinion goes by shining some light on it.
The committee is the three commissioners, and elected officials Daryl Anderson, Nancy Sutton, Tammy Lauer, Bernie Cassidy. Community representatives are Bonnie Larson, Darren Coldwell, Troy; Terry Crooks, Jeff Gruber, Libby; and Steve Newman, Eureka.
In a 2 to 1 vote, Lincoln County Commissioners passed a resolution to allow voters to decide whether or not county elected officials will be non-partisan positions.
Interestingly the vote was along party lines with Libby Commissioner Tony Berget voting no. Berget is a Republican. Democrats John Konzen and Marianne Roose voted for the resolution. Voters will decide the issue in a mail-in election that will run with the municipal elections this November.
A non-partisan designation would allow candidates seeking office to appear on both the Republican and Democrat ballots in the primary election. The top two vote getters would then be on the ballot for November's general election. The non-partisan designation does not mean that candidates must abandon their party affiliations.
That means that voters can vote across party lines in an otherwise closed primary as required by Montana law. This resolution applies only to county offices. State and national offices will remain partisan positions. County elected offices are the Clerk of Courts, Clerk and Recorder, Sheriff, County Treasurer, and the three Commissioner positions.
The November 3rd elections will be by mail in ballots. Those ballots will be in the mail to voters around October 9th.
______________________________
Story by Duane Williams, KLCB 1230 AM Libby News Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com.
|
