The La Plata County commissioners are understandably wary of taking a salary increase at a time when county revenue is down and the county may have to ask the voters for a tax increase to cover such necessities as roads. The juxtaposition of the two may not sit well with local taxpayers. And with that, it is also understandable that they wish they had more control of the situation.
But they do not and they should not. The state Legislature sets the salaries of county elected officials and that allows for an arms-length recognition that even in government there is truth to the old adage that “you get what you pay for.”
Counties are subdivisions of state government and as such exercise only those powers provided for in state law. The state also sets the duties and responsibilities of county officials – and their pay. For purposes of that, Colorado’s 64 counties are divided into six categories, with Category I being the largest and VI the smallest. (There are other measurements than just population, but big-to-small is broadly accurate.)
There are four exceptions: Weld County (Greeley) is in Category I and Pitkin County (Aspen) is in Category II, but both are home rule counties that can set their own salaries and, in general, the structure of their governments. Broomfield and Denver are both cities and counties with a different set of constitutional provisions.
In its 2015 session, the state Legislature passed a bill raising county officials’ pay by more than 30 percent in some cases. In La Plata County, the salaries of commissioners Gwen Lachelt and Julie Westendorf would go from $72,500 to $94,250 in 2017. Elected more recently, Commissioner Brad Blake would not see a raise until 2019 when his pay would go to $98,058.
It should be noted that for each of those current commissioners to see those raises they will have to be re-elected. The state Constitution says county officials’ pay cannot be changed during their term in office and it can be changed only when the state adjusts the salaries of all officials in a county or for that office in all Colorado counties. There are no special deals.
The bill passed earlier this year would also give hefty raises to the sheriff, the county clerk and all other elected county officials. And as a percentage, those bumps are greater than the commissioners’.
The system seems convoluted, but to the extent that such a thing is possible it takes politics out of the equation. County officials do not vote on their own pay, nor can they campaign on keeping county pay low.
And that is the danger in ceding control of salaries to the counties. How much county officials get paid should not be a political issue. Making it one would, at least over time, drive down salaries to the point where honest, qualified people would not take the jobs.
Even in smaller counties, commissioner is a big job. In some circumstances a county commissioner embodies all three branches of government. Moreover, with only three commissioners per county (with a population of 70,000 or more a county can elect to have five), two people can effectively run things. That is a lot of responsibility and a lot of power.
Nothing so affects the efficiency, effectiveness, honesty and overall value of county government as the quality of its elected officials. Doing anything that could devalue those positions or make it more difficult to attract the best candidates would be a false economy and a mistake.
