After tabling action on the compensation board’s recommendation for elected official pay raises on two prior occasions, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors bucked a recent trend and accepted the increases as presented during Wednesday morning’s regular meeting.

Although the board eventually opted to approve the compensation board’s full recommendation — a 10 percent raise for all elected officials except Sheriff Joel Phillips, who would receive a 20 percent pay increase — Supervisor Carol Hibbs initially motioned to give Phillips a 14 percent raise, seven percent for the county auditor/recorder, attorney and treasurer, and 3.5 percent for the supervisors themselves. In previously tabling action, the supervisors cited potential legislation at the Statehouse that could modify budget calculations, but Board Chairman Jarret Heil said that possibility had been “built in” to the current budget the county is set to publish.

Once the original motion had received a second, Supervisor Steve Salasek asked to hear from the compensation board, and Mark Eaton, who serves as the sheriff’s representative on that board, took time to explain his viewpoint. Eaton noted that Phillips receives the lowest annual pay among sheriffs in any of the counties comparable to Marshall, and as stipulated in Iowa’s new “Back the Blue” law, his pay is now legally required to be set at a level “comparable” to city police chiefs in similar-sized communities and administrators and command officers with the Iowa State Patrol and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Currently, Phillips makes just over $100,000 annually, and Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper and State Patrol Major David Halverson, who is assigned to Marshall County, are both paid over $130,000.

Eaton said he hopes to get Phillips’s compensation to that level within a few years, but he worried about waiting too long to do it. He also pointed out that Lee County, which is smaller than Marshall County in population, gave its sheriff a 45 percent pay increase due to the Back the Blue law.

“If we keep holding the sheriff back and we keep holding the deputies that are tied to him back and keep squeezing that percentage between negotiated union and non-union people… I understand it’s a lot to ask, but with inflation and what everyone else is doing to fill this Back the Blue requirement, we’re just putting ourselves behind the eight ball if we keep holding that down,” Eaton said. “I think we did a good job of working hard to get it at 20 percent, so I’d like to see the supervisors take the recommendation. Otherwise, there’s no point for the commission to exist. We work hard at this. We don’t take our jobs lightly, and there are many people on the commission who are jaded from many years of being beaten down. We really need to fix this.”

Chief Deputy Ben Veren also weighed in, arguing that it was frustrating to see large amounts of money routinely approved to go toward expenditures like the courthouse project while employees simultaneously see their raises reduced by the supervisors. Marshall County 911 Communications Director Rhonda Braudis encouraged the board to do whatever it takes to attract top-tier talent to the county.

According to IT Director James Nehring, Marshall County, which ranks 15th out of Iowa’s 99 counties in population, is currently 51st in treasurer pay, while the supervisors are 30th, the sheriff is 42nd, the auditor is ranked 21st (but Marshall County is one of only two in the state of Iowa where the auditor and recorder position are combined), and the county attorney is ranked 32nd.

“The reality is Marshall County is behind. We have pride in our elected officials, pride in our people, and we want to have the best here. We believe that we’re the best, and the pay should reflect that,” Heil said.

Heil commended county departments for keeping their budgets tight and looking for cuts wherever possible, and he then asked whether it made more sense to bump pay in “small or medium bites” to catch up or to take a big bite this year. Veren said he would like to see the county do as much as it could now and then reassess come budget time next year.

“The last decade has set us so far back (that) we need, not little steps. We need several big steps just to get back on track, and that’s not figuring any increases. That’s just figuring flat where we’re at today,” Veren said. “I’m afraid that without taking that big step, we’re not gonna get there.”

The monetary difference between the compensation board’s recommendation and the initial motion, according to Auditor/Recorder Nan Benson, was $22,007.10, and Braudis cited a cost saving measure she instituted to save Phillips about 70 percent on the language line bill the sheriff’s office uses to illustrate that employees could easily make up the difference.

“If every agency did something similar to that, I can guarantee you that cost savings is gonna far exceed that $22,000,” Braudis said. “When people walk away and they feel appreciated, they have way more energization to eyeball every single thing that comes across their desk.”

Veren and Jail Administrator Patrick White worried that they would struggle to attract candidates for promotions because union hourly employees can make almost as much or more than their salaried, exempt counterparts by working overtime.

“At some point, sacrificing continually year after year after year with no improvement does get to be frustrating,” Veren said.

Citing his personal anti-tax positions, Eaton pointed out “at his own demise” that despite being the 15th most populated county in Iowa, Marshall County is in the 60th percentile rank on taxes, and Heil asked if the county was operating like one of the most populated in the state.

“We’ve cut corners in a lot of different ways, and I think we can do much better,” Heil said. “At the same time, it’s not necessarily raising taxes by that amount. We’re curbing back on our spending and being efficient. That’s our commitment… That’s what we’re working toward is how to be a more efficient, more robust county and targeting growth.”

With the caveat that the supervisors will likely have to reconvene with department heads to discuss additional budget adjustments, Hibbs modified her motion to accept the original recommendation of a 10 percent increase for all elected officials except for the sheriff, who will receive a 20 percent bump, and it carried by a unanimous vote.

Now that the new pay rates have been approved, salaries will be as follows beginning July 1, 2023: $130,599.74 for County Attorney Jordan Gaffney, $120,701.38 for Phillips, $88,786.63 for Benson, $76,435.66 for County Treasurer Deann Tomlinson and $44,587.49 for each supervisor.

In other business, the board:

• Approved courthouse change orders totaling $220,004.56 — Of those orders, $28,498.50 will be paid by the owner (the county) along with $1,848 in code changes (also the county’s responsibility), and the remaining $191,658.06 will be covered by insurance. The largest single expense was a lift rental cost of $177,409, which will be covered by insurance.

• Discussed an insurance claim regarding water damage at the Annex Building with Bobby Shomo of Shomo-Madsen Insurance.

• Approved a three-year audit agreement with Eide Bailey LLP of Des Moines with payment not to exceed $60,000 for fiscal year 2023, $64,300 for FY2024 and $68,600 for FY2025.

• Approved a change of status for Veterans Affairs Director Kevin Huseboe from part-time hourly to salaried 28 hours per week at $28 per hour.

• Approved the hiring of Emma Bruck as an interpretive naturalist in the conservation department at an hourly pay rate of $22.48.

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.