Wednesday, May 18, 2011
 
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County board to decide salaries and benefits for next 10 years

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(Originally posted Tuesday)

[May 18, 2011]  By law, compensation and benefits for elected officials cannot be changed midterm. Every 10 years the Logan County Board is reset. On Dec. 1, 2012, all board members will be starting new with either two-year or four-year terms. Preparation for those changes needs to be done now, before those running for the next term would file for candidacy.

Currently, all board members receive $35 per diem and mileage to attend meetings, plus health insurance and retirement benefits. Per diem is per day; consecutive meetings are one meeting, one per diem.

Committees are set with two or three meeting on the same days, back to back. Most committees meeting on a given evening are assigned the same members, with five members, plus the county board chairman attends all committees.

Discussion was initiated a couple of years ago when the county had Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance that would not cover future board members as part-time employees. The board indicated then that it would likely not be offering health insurance to future board members beginning with the 10-year reset.

When the finance committee met earlier this month, chairman Chuck Ruben had some figures for comparison on what other Illinois counties our size are doing. He also had in hand current board costs.

  • Montgomery County -- $60 per diem; no insurance

  • Ogle County -- $150 covers the first four meetings, additional at $50 a meeting thereafter

  • Mason County -- $70 for chairman, $60 for other board members

  • Livingston County -- $80 for chairman, $45 for other board members

Ruben and Farmer both heard from another county's board member that they get a flat $350 a month.

Ruben told committee members: "I think we need to stay just where we're at. With the current conditions, I can't see spending more money for per diems than we're currently spending."

Assuming that insurance would be dropped, he took the $40,000 budgeted for the current year -- broken down with $7,000 per year for mileage costs, leaving $33,000 for per diem; added $28,800 per year for health insurance for six board members, the number participating at last count; then redistributed that sum toward a per diem with an average 1,000 meeting payouts per year and got $68,800 per year.

That calculates to $61.80 per diem plus mileage for 12 board members.

Current benefits of dental, health or life insurance that are now made available and paid by the county would be dropped.

The restructure is comparable to what other counties have done.

Finance committeeman David Hepler suggested looking at committee sizes as well to help with the overall cost to the county. He suggested that each committee does not have to have six people; if a three-person committee would work, it could help with costs.

Quorum standards would complicate smaller committees. It was questioned if three members would create a legally recognized committee, but also, what if one member couldn't be there? Then would two people present be legal by government meeting standards? Also to be considered, committee sessions would require that a higher number of members be in attendance to meet quorum; and if two committee members met outside of a meeting time, any discussion would be considered illegal.

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An additional thought thrown in was that a larger-sized committee provides better representation in deciding matters that would go before the board for approval.

Jan Schumacher said she met this week with county board members from like-sized counties that had 24 to 28 people, even 32. Bob Farmer interjected that this would cost much more in per diems.

Everyone agreed that Logan County's board is the right size for our county, with each board member representing about 2,000 people.

Ruben proposed that $60 per diem, mileage and no benefits be put to the full board. Hepler was the only committeeman in opposition.

When Ruben brought the motion before the board last Thursday, there was considerable discussion that resulted in a number of proposed amendments.

The first suggested amendment came from Pat O'Neill, who suggested raising the per diem from $35 to $45, eliminating mileage and insurance.

Jan Schumacher, Bill Martin, Terry Carlton, Ruben and others opposed eliminating mileage, saying it was inequitable to board members who drive larger distances. The drive costs them in time as well as transportation costs.

The suggestion failed a straw vote.

Ruben projected that if you took the Consumer Price Index and applied it to the current $35 pay that was set in 1972, 40 years ago, it would have doubled by now.

Schumacher proposed an amendment of $45 per diem, mileage and no health insurance. The resulting verbal straw vote was uncertain if this amendment would pass at the adjourned session of the board on Tuesday night (May 17).

[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]

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