County Council approves $30,000 raises for three county positions

 

SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- The Saint Joseph County Council barely passed a bill that gives hefty raises to some elected officials in the county. 

The county clerk, auditor, and assessor all seeing a pay raise, their salaries now adjusted to $100,000 a year.  

It was a 5-4 vote that wasn't made without lots of questions and concerns. 

“How do newly elected officials go back to their offices and look the front-line workers in the eye and basically say ‘I am worth a raise of 43% while you are worth only 3%’ even though those workers have been underpaid for years,” said a concerned taxpayer at Tuesday’s County Council meeting. 

Questions concerning the sustainability, the justification, and amount of the three raises are still on the minds of St. Joseph County taxpayers and even some council members too. 

The county auditor, assessor, and clerk will all take home $100,000 a year effective this month after working in their roles for just over seven months now.  

The clerk and auditor originally made $70,000 and the assessor made $65,000 a year.  

Concerns arose about how the raises were justified, some claiming it was self-reviews of the elected officials' own performance, and others had issues with the raises coming just a week before 2024 budget planning.  

The council members voting yes say they have seen firsthand the outstanding work the three have done in their positions. 

“As we enter the budget season, give serious consideration to supporting the bill in a bipartisan manner, because it does take care of elected officials across the bipartisan scope of our elected officials,” says President of the Saint Joseph County Council, Mark Root. 

“There is not a single person here or in any position in any organization in the world that gets to make their own annual review six months early with no kind of corresponding oversight and take it at face value to justify a raise,” says Bryan Tanner, Saint Joseph County Councilman. 

The three officials will receive backpay for what they earned as of July 1st.