New legislation taking effect Jan. 1 will mean pay raises are coming for state and local public officials, but La Plata County commissioners have different perspectives on the timing and appropriateness of the raise.
Senate Bill 288, introduced late in the 2015 legislative session, was pushed through last spring and will bump some elected officials’ pay by more than 30 percent.
The governor, lieutenant governor, lawmakers, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer will benefit from the new bill, as well as local governing bodies.
In La Plata County, the bill equates to a 30 percent increase from $72,500 to $94,250 for Commissioners Gwen Lachelt and Julie Westendorff starting in 2017, which will mark 10 years since the last raise in 2007 for local officials. Commissioner Brad Blake, because he is newer to the commission, will not receive his raise until 2019.
Though the commission sent lawmakers a letter of support for the raise in April and received positive feedback in several public meetings about the legislative proposal, Blake said he now has concerns about the pay increase coming at a time when county revenue is taking a hit as the value of natural gas declines.
“My position definitely changed because of the possible downturn in revenue for the county and the costs for the county going up,” Blake said Thursday. “I would like to see a smaller increase, though I felt all along that some pay increases were needed for public officials.”
For example, the county sheriff, who is elected, is paid less than the undersheriff, who is not elected and has received pay increases in past years.
But pay differences like these are why Lachelt said the raises are critical.
“There will always be local control in any budget year, and commissioners could decide to not go with the legislators’ recommendation for increases,” Lachelt said. “But the feedback we got was if we want to continue recruiting qualified people for county positions, we need to go with their recommendation.”
Westendorff agreed.
“These are jobs that are more than full time,” she said. “We won’t have qualified candidates if the salary is not commensurate with what the work is.”
Blake estimated commissioners average 40 to 50 hours work a week, sometimes more.
Raises at the local level are calculated considering multiple criteria, including county size; the sheriff is looking at a pay increase from $87,700 to $118,616 – more than 35 percent – in 2019. Other officials’ salaries also will receive a 35 percent bump, including the clerk, assessor and treasurer.
It is possible for local governments to request lesser or no pay increase, but that would require another bill proposal in the next legislative session.
Though the county has determined the raises will have a negligible impact to the overall budget, some locals have shared their discontent online.
“This presents a test in integrity,” Rex Romanus of Bayfield posted under an article The Durango Herald published on the subject in August. “If they are truly unwilling to accept the raise, the only honorable thing to do is for them to take that 30 percent and put it into an account only to be used to offset everyone’s increases in property taxes.”
Others protested for raises for nonelected county employees as well.
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