Financial dry spell will continue

LISA HOBBS - News Editor

If Warren County commissioners vote on Monday, Aug. 17, to increase the monthly stipend for serving, it will not go into effect until 2030.

“I called our attorney, Robert Bratcher, this morning,” stated Commissioner Christy Ross. “He said we would have to pass a resolution prior to the Aug. 6 election in order for it to take affect this term.  If we vote to approve this Monday night, it won’t go into effect until 2030. So, we are not voting to give ourselves a raise.”  

On Monday of this week, the county’s Financial Management Committee approved a proposal by County Executive Terry Bell to increase commissioners’ monthly salaries, from $260 to $417, and tie future increases to the executive’s salary: 1/24th. That salary is set by the state. During that meeting, Bell stated that the decision to increase must be made by the full commission before Sept. 1 and would go into effect this term.

When contacted by Warren County Way, Bell stated that he was unaware of a change in the law that occurred between when Jimmy Haley served as county executive and now.

“Commissioners changed committee pay during Jimmy’s tenure, but there has been a law passed since then that any adjustment in the pay of the county commission will not take effect until the next election, after the election of the commissioners,” he said.

Bell confirmed that the timeframe in which a change could have been made for this term was prior to the Aug. 6 election.

“This is probably for the best,” said Bell. “This way nobody can complain about it. We are still going to vote on it Monday night. They’ll still get their chance to say yes or no. That way, we’ll have it behind us. I’ve been wanting to get this done. I tried to do it in 2018. Then, that law wasn’t in effect. We could have done it.”

The monthly stipend for county commissioners has been set at $260 for 35 years.