Government : Benton County Board of Compensation Submits 3% pay raise recommendation

The Benton County Compensation board met on Tuesday evening to make a recommendation to the Benton County Supervisors for a pay raise for the elected officials in Benton County.

Video of the Compensation Board meeting can be seen here.

Each elected official selects one person to represent them on the board.

Benton County Board of Supervisors (who has 2 representatives) were represented by Nick Volk-Nick, Co-Chair and Bob Hanson

Benton County Attorney David Thompson was represented by Terry Harrington

Benton County Auditor, Hayley Rippel, also the secretary of the Board was represented by Amy Van Wechel

Benton County Recorder, Lexa Spiedel, was represented by the Chairman of the Board, John Yundt

Benton County Sheriff, Ron Tippett, was represented by Anders Norgaard

Benton County Treasurer, represented by Dick Kerdus

Of the Iowa counties, Benton ranks 24 in population. In counties that are near us in size, wages for employees vary. Below is the comparison of salaries for counties above and below us in population.

Benton County ranks highest in wages for the Supervisors, Auditor, Recorder and Treasurer in these 5 counties.

County Pop. RankSupervisorAttorneyAuditorRecorderSheriffTreasurerMarion 22nd$39,718$116,828$73,364$70,947$96,913$72,232Boone 23rd$32,271$119,014$65,085$65,085$87,339$65,085Benton 24th$41,375$109,269$76,540$72,385$90,712$72,385Plymouth 25th$34,180$119,199$71,055$71,055$98,076$71,055Bremer 26th$37,514$114,107$68,250$68,250$87,339$68,250

New Proposed Salaries:

Supervisors - $42,616.66 (Chairman includes $1,000 stipend - $43,616.66)

Attorney - $112,546.52

Auditor - $78,836.47

Recorder - $74,556.43

Sheriff - $93,433.73

Treasurer - $74,556.43

Falling in the middle of the wages is the Sheriff while the County Attorney falls in the bottom of all 5 counties.

Across the state, wages in the county rank as follows: Supervisors rank 11th, Attorney 28th, Auditor 14th, Recorder 15th, Sheriff 23rd, and the Treasurer 16th.

A motion was made to give everyone a 4% increase but that motion did not pass and instead the board recommended a wage increase of 3% across the board.

Source: https://www.iowacounties.org/member-resources/salary-survey/