The seven-member Dallas County Compensation Board held its annual meeting Wednesday afternoon and approved a recommendation from the county’s elected officeholders for a 3 percent pay raise for the county’s elected officeholders.
The board of supervisors will take action on the compensation board’s salary recommendation during their budget hearing in March. If approved, the new pay rates would take effect July 1, 2019. The officerholders’ salaries for the previous two years and the proposed salaries for next year are shown in the following table:
Office 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
Auditor $83,963.65 $86,488.69 $89,083.35
Treasurer $83,963.65 $86,488.69 $89,083.35
Recorder $83,963.65 $86,488.69 $89,083.35
Sheriff $118,846.45 $122.416.74 $126,089.24
Attorney $131,668.47 $135,613.92 $139,682.34
Supervisors $55,404.80 $57,073.54 $58.785.75
Each elected officeholder in the county government chooses one representative to sit on the Dallas County Compensation Board, except for the three-member board of supervisors, which chooses two representatives.
Nick Gruber, chair of the compensation board, represented Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard at Wednesday’s meeting. Vice-chair Kellie Paschke represented Dallas County Recorder Chad Airhart. Compensation board members Larry Lyons and Rich Loftsgard jointly represented the Dallas County Board of Supervisors. Dallas County Attorney Chuck Sinnard was represented by compensation board member Kara McClure, and Dallas County Auditor Julia Helm’s representative was Tom Sepic.
Dallas County Treasurer Mitch Hambleton attended the meeting, but his representative on the compensation board, Keith Troester, was absent. Leonard, Airhart, Sinnard and Supervisor Mark Hanson also attended, with Dallas County Human Resources Director Erin Freeman acting as the board’s secretary.
The proposed 3 percent increase for officeholders is in line with proposed pay raises for the county’s unionized and non-unionized employees. Non-union workers are covered under the county’s pay plan. They are in line for a cost-of-living adjustment and a merit increase of up to 2 percent or 4 percent, depending upon their years of service and placement within the pay scale.
Four unions separately negotiate employment contracts with the county. The contracts for next year have not yet been ratified by the board of supervisors, but the proposed increases are all between 3 percent and 4 percent.
The Teamsters Union Local 238 represents workers in the Dallas County Sheriff’s office and the Dallas County Secondary Roads Department. AFSCME Council 61 represents employees in the Dallas County Attorney’s office. The Dallas County EMS Professionals Union represents the emergency medical technicians and paramedics in the Dallas County EMS Department.
The provisional union raises are across-the-board increases and do not reflect any step increases. Dallas County’s current union contracts are published on the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board and are available for viewing.
