COUNTY OFFICIALS DISCUSS SALARIES FOR THEIR POSITIONS
Platte County’s elected officeholders are studying the idea of a pay increase for their positions.
The Platte County Salary Commission, which is comprised of the actual elected officeholders, meets every two years to contemplate salaries for the elected positions they hold. Per the state constitution, any salary increases cannot be put into effect until the next term of office, in other words, until the current officeholder will have run for re-election.
A meeting of the salary commission took place on Monday, Oct. 16 at the Platte County Administration Building. It adjourned with a plan to reconvene on Oct. 30, to allow time for more fact-gathering of salaries in other comparable counties throughout the state.
Rob Willard, county treasurer, said he will gather the information from comparable counties, taking into account things such as county population and assessed valuation.
Nine officeholders were in attendance for Monday’s meeting, including Joe Vanover, second district county commissioner; Dagmar Wood, second district commissioner; Scott Fricker, presiding commissioner; Sheila Palmer, county collector; Jera Pruitt, county clerk; Christopher Wright, county recorder of deeds; Rob Willard, county treasurer; Shanna Burns, public administrator; and Kevin Robinson, county auditor.
Absent were David Cox, county assessor; Mark Owen, sheriff; and Eric Zahnd, prosecutor. Zahnd historically has not taken part in salary commission meetings, explaining that since the prosecutor’s salary is set by the state he doesn’t feel the need to take part.
Even though the sheriff’s salary is also set by the state, Owen has taken an active role in Platte County Salary Commission meetings in the past.
Currently, salaries for Platte County elected officials range from $65,339 for the two associate commissioners, to $67,339 for officeholders whose terms expire in 2024, to $71,443 for officeholders whose terms expire in 2026, according to information supplied to The Landmark by the county auditor.
Salaries for the prosecutor and sheriff, as set by the state, are $156,215 for the county prosecutor and $124,971 for the county sheriff.
As for salaries controlled by the Platte County Salary Commission, Willard on Monday announced some numbers he had gathered thus far from other counties. Those salary numbers included $79,760 for officials in Cass County and $75,000 for Clay County, he said.
Other counties, such as Boone, Greene, Cape Girardeau, Jefferson were even higher, ranging from $94,000 to more than $100,000.
Vanover was the first to make a motion at Monday’s meeting. He moved to make no changes to officeholder salaries. That motion was narrowly defeated by a vote of 5-4.
Those voting to keep officeholder salaries at their present level were Vanover, Wood, Fricker and Wright.
Voting against the idea of holding salaries at the current level were Willard, Burns, Pruitt, Palmer, and Robinson.
Wright explained his vote is due to a promise he made to voters during his 2022 campaign not to seek a pay increase. Without that promise to voters, Wright commented that he believes Platte County’s officeholders are “grossly underpaid.”
Willard said up until 2021 he was always a “no” vote on a salary increase, but he believes the county “is in a different place” now than a decade ago. Up until about 2020 county employees were “being neglected,” Willard said. Recent improvements he specifically mentioned included law enforcement salaries being improved by the relatively new county sales tax for law enforcement. He said he is still “worried” about salaries of county employees who don’t work in law enforcement.
As for officeholders, Willard said: “I think it’s fair to say our families have been impacted by inflation,” though he added: “I know none of us ran for office to get rich.”
In 2021, the Platte County Salary Commission voted to give county elected positions a six percent salary increase. That increase became effective with positions elected in 2022.
Pruitt made a motion to reschedule a salary commission meeting after Willard has done more research on officeholder salaries in other counties. Wood and Vanover voted against that motion, all others voted in favor.
Another topic discussed was whether the salary commission would recommend a cost of living increase for officeholders. The vote on a COLA is simply a recommendation to be made to the county commission at budget time. The county commission would have the final say on whether the recommendation for a COLA would be followed and budgeted.
Vanover made a motion that the salary commission recommend no cost of living increase for officeholders. The three commissioners and Wright voted in favor, but that motion was defeated 5-4 with Robinson, Willard, Pruitt, Palmer and Burns voting against.
Pruitt then made a successful motion to table the COLA discussion until the Oct. 30 meeting, at the same time the salary commission meets again to discuss the officeholder salaries.
