11/21/07 - Proposals would lower election heads’ salary

Legislature has choice between two measures with $800 in salary difference between them

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The Cortland County Legislature will have two options within just under $800 of each other when it considers the 2009 salaries of the county election commissioners at the Nov. 29 Legislative session.

The 2008 election commissioner salary would be $29,967, according to the draft of Local Law No. 2 for 2007.

The salary for the part-time position in 2009 would either be $27,176, as county Personnel Committee proposed last week; or $26,385 according to a resolution passed by the Budget and Finance Committee Tuesday morning.

Both proposals are based on 75 percent of the salary of pay grade level 10 in the county’s management compensation schedule — 75 percent is the proportion of a full workday that the election commissioners spend fulfilling their duties, according to an informal survey completed in 2004.

The lower salary proposal reflects that pay grade this year and the higher figure reflects 2008’s grade 10 pay.

Members of both committees have said that they support basing the numbers on the 75 percent of grade 10 salary because it shows that they’re not just picking an arbitrary figure.

Budget and Finance Committee Chair Ron Van Dee (D-5th Ward) said that sending the two proposals to the full Legislature would give “all 19 legislators a chance to vote — I think that’s a good thing.”

Personnel Committee Chair Larry Cornell (R-Marathon and Lapeer) said that he supports the higher salary, while outgoing Legislature Chairman Marilyn Brown (D-8th Ward) said that she supports the lower salary.

A provision in the law as it was originally presented to the Personnel Committee would have barred election commissioners from serving simultaneously as party chair, but the Personnel Committee decided to remove that portion of the proposed law and save it for further discussion next year within the context of the county’s code of ethics.

For 2006, Democratic Election Commissioner Bill Wood was paid $25,616 while Republican Commissioner Bob Howe was paid $29,967. Howe’s salary included longevity payments based on his 10 years in the position. Wood is in his second year as election commissioner.

The position had been removed from the county’s management longevity compensation plan last December in an attempt to equalize the salaries.