Hunter
01/05/23
The Johnson County Compensation Board is recommending double-digit increases for its elected officials.
The Gazette reports that the board approved a 16 percent increase for county attorney Rachel Zimmerman, a 12 percent increase for Sheriff Brad Kunkel, and 10 percent increases for Auditor Travis Weipert, Recorder Kim Painter, Treasurer Scott Finlayson, and supervisors Lisa Green-Douglas, Rod Sullivan, Jon Green, Royceann Porter, and V Fixmer-Oraiz.
During last month’s Compensation Board meeting, outgoing County Attorney Janet Lyness said she was mistaken about a salary cap tied to district court judge’s pay for her office. She found out that the cap only exists when a county attorney is appointed to fill a vacancy and the county has a population of less than 200,000. Lyness believes the County Attorney salary is off by about 15 percent.
Compensation board vice-chair Stacy Claeys is also recommending that the Board of Supervisors develop a long-range plan on how to compensate employees.
The recommendations now go to the Board of Supervisors, who can approve or decrease all of the raises by the same amount. They can also lower their own salaries independent of the other elected officials’ pay. A ten percent raise would put their salaries at just over $98,000 per year.
Last year, the compensation board recommended increases of 18 percent to keep salaries competitive with other counties. The Board of Supervisors instead approved a 4.42 percent increase, and gave themselves a 2 ¼ percent raise.