Before telling the Mower County Board of Commissioners how disgusted he is with the pay raises they gave themselves and other elected officials, Eugene Novak said, “I’m disgusted with the lack of citizens here today to speak up.”

Novak was a solitary voice Tuesday morning at the county commissioners’ meeting.

“When you give yourselves pay raises, how do you decide how to do that?” Novak began.

The county board’s defense team immediately went to work.

Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner and chairman of the county board’s finance committee, tried to explain the process.

According to Tucker, the county board negotiated contracts with five bargaining units for three years in length each.

The contracts called for annual pay hikes for all union employees totaling 3 percent.

“When we set the salaries of non-union employees and elected officials, we normally follow suit with what we give the union employees,” Tucker said.

Craig Oscarson, county coordinator, said there was no state statute governing how the commissioners set salaries.

Dave Hillier, 3rd District county commission and chairman of the county board’s personnel committee, which recommended the latest pay hikes, said the county’s department heads received 3 percent pay increases and because of their positions of authority, that’s why elected officials also got similar increases.

Before the pay raise defense rested its argument, the county coordinator said Mower County risked a 5 percent fine of all pay increases given if it didn’t comply with the state’s pay equity legislation.

Novak, a frequent visitor to county board meetings, listened patiently before speaking.

“I heard on the radio last Friday that the Governor was disappointed with the 3 percent pay raises you gave yourselves,” Novak said. “He said when times are bad like they are now, government officials shouldn’t be increasing their pay.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty did single out Mower County in his weekly radio address “Good Morning, Minnesota” Friday, Jan. 9.

The full broadcast is available on the governor’s Web page, but to summarize Pawlenty did call upon government officials at all levels to rescind pay increases in light of the nation’s and specifically Minnesota’s economic troubles.

The governor also urged citizens to “Watch what they do” when justifying pay hikes.

Novak said he worried Mower County’s pay hikes in the face of the state’s budget deficit could affect the county’s chances when the Governor distributes state aid. “Is that possible?” he asked the commissioners.

Hillier told Novak, the state’s distribution of aid is based on a formula. “I don’t know how the Governor could change that formula from one county to another for such a reason,” he said.

Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen was present at the meeting as the county board’s legal counsel.

Nelsen said she has made less than her predecessor (Patrick Flanagan) for the last two years before receiving a pay adjustment that pushed her salary upwards.

Nelsen told Novak, “I don’t do this job solely for the money” and that her annual salary is decided “at the discretion of the county board.”

Not all hikes were 3 percent

The 2009 salary adjustments approved by the county board included:

Mower County Commissioners: 2008 salary: $24,200. New salary, $24,926.

Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen: 2008 salary, $83,286. New salary, $89,093.

Mower County Recorder Sue Davis: 2008 salary, $66,057. New salary, $68,039.

Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi: 2008 salary, $83,083. New salary: $87,635.

Mower County Auditor-Treasurer Doug Groh: 2008 salary, $64,038. New salary, $68,181.

A week after the county commissioners gave elected officials in Mower County pay hikes, Pawlenty was on the radio castigating them.

The commissioners have also heard other criticisms.

The county coordinator acknowledged the criticism the commissioners received for their actions each year, but said citizens have the final recourse at “election time.”

Oscarson also defended the pay increases as being a necessary means of attracting the best employees.

“If we start freezing salaries, we will have to start hiring from the bottom of the barrel,” he said.

When the lengthy exchange concluded, Novak thanked the officials for listening to him and again deplored the lack of other citizens, whom he said, “aren’t happy with the pay increases.”

Dave Tollefson, 5th District county commissioner and chairman of the county board, said “Sixty-five percent of the county’s budget is spent on salaries and benefits.”

Finance committee chairman Tucker blasted Gov. Pawlenty for being hypocritical. “He’s the one who got the state into debt. We aren’t in debt in Mower County,” Tucker said.

The Austin City Council has not adjusted the pay of elected city officials since 2001.

The mayor is currently paid $9,000 a year, the At Large council member, $7,800; and all other council members, $6,600 annually. The Austin Board of Education has not adjusted school board salaries since 1990. The chairperson receives $400 per month and other directors, $300.

The Austin mayor and all council member positions are, like Austin school board directors, part-time positions, the same as county commissioner positions.

All other county elected officials work full-time schedules they make for themselves.

The county attorney and county sheriff, because of the nature of their work, are on-call 24/7.

While the intent of the council’s pay adjustments was to match the 3 percent increase given bargaining unit employees and non-bargaining unit workers, when an elected official reaches another “Step” on the salary schedule or employment anniversary, it could result in a greater than 3 percent pay hike.

Thus, while the county commissioners received a flat 3 percent pay hike, the other elected officials pay was adjusted thusly, because of employment anniversary and salary schedule milestones: county attorney, 6.97 percent increase; county auditor-treasurer, 6.46 percent increase; sheriff, 5.47 percent increase; and county recorder, 2.99 percent.