Four on county board get pay raises

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

The Clark County Commission gave each of its four senior members a $4,500-a-year raise on Tuesday and set them up for additional raises every six months for the next two years

But the three newest members of the board will have to get re-elected before they get raises.

By July 2005 the commissioners' base pay, which was $54,000 annually before Tuesday, will be $68,390.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury suggested the multiple raises, which over two years will increase commissioners' pay to the limit authorized by the state Legislature. He said the pay needed to be increased to "attract good and qualified people to the County Commission."

Woodbury had recommended the raises be for all the commissioners, but Commissioner Rory Reid, who took office in January, said he didn't think he had earned a raise yet. Reid suggested the commissioners amend Woodbury's proposal so that only those commissioners who have already stood for re-election received the raises. The commissioners unanimously approved Woodbury's proposal with Reid's amendment.

The vote gave Woodbury, Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Myrna Williams and Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey an 8 percent raise immediately. They will also receive raises of $1,500 in January, $1,000 in July 2004, $4,000 in January 2005 and $3,390 in July 2005.

Kincaid-Chauncey said the some people will probably make the raises an issue in the coming elections, but she thinks most people will see the raises as reasonable. "It's always an issue when pay raises are involved," she said. "But if we had been getting just cost-of-living raises for the last eight years, it would have come to that much." Reid and Commissioners Mark James and Chip Maxfield will continue to be paid $54,000 a year until the end of their current terms -- January 2005 for Maxfield and January 2007 for Reid and James. They will jump to the higher pay if re-elected to second terms.

"I understand the justification for the increase," Reid said. "However, I don't think it should apply to all of us equally. I have been here six months and I don't think I deserve an increase."

James, who like Reid took office in January, and Maxfield, whose term began in 2001, said they agreed with Reid.

Including longevity pay, which adds 2 percent annually to commissioners' pay after the first four years in office, the top pay for commissioners was raised from $64,800, which Woodbury and Gates were making, to $82,069 in July 2005. Longevity pay is capped at 20 percent above the base pay.

Woodbury joined the board in 1981, Yvonne Atkinson Gates was first elected in 1992, Williams in 1994, and Kincaid-Chauncey in 1996.

The pay for county commissioners, which is considered a part-time job, has traditionally been set by the state Legislature. However, this year legislators, who last raised commissioners' base pay in 1995, passed that job on to the commissioners while limiting raises to 26.65 percent.

Woodbury said that while the commissioners were allowed to give themselves the full 26.65 percent raises now, he thought it was a better example to phase in the raises. "We don't have a fiscal emergency but, if we're asking all the departments to tighten their belts, it's better that we don't take all the increase right now," Woodbury said.

Woodbury also noted that commissioners in other counties have already given themselves raises. Last week the Washoe County commissioners raised their base pay from $39,600 a year to $48,800 annually as of Tuesday. On Jan. 1 their base pay will rise to $50,153, which is their new ceiling. Kincaid-Chauncey also said that the raises will help offset the costs of driving all over the commissioners' large districts. "We have never received car allowances -- this will go a long way to compensate us for wear and tear on our cars and mileage," she said. Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, said Monday that while the group has no formal position on whether the raises are justified, she thinks having commissioners decide their salaries is better than having the state lawmakers set their salaries. That way they can be held accountable by the voters, Vilardo said.

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