County electeds request pay increase

County level elected officials have requested that the Crook County Commissioners consider granting them a pay increase for the next four-year period.

County Attorney Joe Baron spoke to the issue, citing issues including competition with private industry, retention and cost of living as arguments for making the increase.

“Every four years, the board of commissioners has to set salaries for elected officials,” he said. This process cannot happen once an elected official is instituted; it must be complete before they take office.

The Wyoming Legislature increased the cap on elected official salaries this year, Baron said. He asked the commission to consider an increase when they set the salaries, which must be done by June 1.

Baron spoke to the cost of living, noting that county employees have received a 9% increase and $3600 in premium pay if they worked throughout the pandemic. Elected officials did not receive the premium pay, he said, and were only given a $1700 per year raise four years ago, even though there has been an 11.2% cost-of-living increase during that time.

Regarding the premium pay, he pointed out that the employees were not the only ones who kept the courthouse open during the pandemic.

“Everybody did what needed to be done,” he said, stating that this shows the level of dedication offered by the elected officials who serve the county.

Baron said he had performed an analysis and found that cost of living was bouncing around a 2% to 3% annual increase until last year, when it rose to 8.1%. This year, until February (when the invasion of Ukraine began), the rate was at 7.9%.

Baron asked the commission to consider additional factors, including the compensation an employee doing a similar job would receive in private industry; the training an elected official is required to complete; and the impact on the county’s functionality of not attracting quality candidates.

Baron shared his concern that the lack of salary for the county’s electeds is failing to attract healthy competition during elections.

He suggested, “You need to look at this from a bigger, long-term perspective.”

County Clerk Linda Fritz and Clerk of District Court Tina Wood further asked the commission to consider that elected officials in this county are more involved with the daily operations than their counterparts in larger counties. A larger staff means that “they are more administrators,” Wood said.

Fritz also noted that elected officials don’t get overtime but, as the commission knows well, are sending emails and receiving calls in the evenings and at the weekends.

“When there’s a job to do, you have to work until the job’s done,” agreed Commissioner Kelly Dennis.

No numbers were discussed during this initial conversation, which will be continued during the May regular meeting. A decision is expected at that time in order to meet the June 1 deadline.