SIOUX CITY — The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors has opted to establish an elected officials compensation board, instead of setting the salaries themselves, as a new Iowa law would have allowed. A bill signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in May did away with the traditional county compensation boards tasked with recommending the pay for elected officials.
The compensation board members were appointed by the elected officials, who were barred by state law from setting their own salaries. The law dissolved all the compensation boards in all 99 counties on July 1. County supervisors were then given a choice of whether to establish a new compensation board by a majority vote or set elected officials' salaries themselves.
After consulting with County Attorney James Loomis, Board Chair Dan Bittinger moved Tuesday for the five-member board to create a new compensation board and appoint their two representatives. The motion Tuesday passed unanimously. "Reinstating the compensation board would be beneficial by having members of the public evaluate all pay increases & assist in safeguarding the integrity of the budgeting process & would also be a wise use of the tax payer dollars," according to the board documents.
In July, the supervisors discussed the issue, choosing to consult the previous compensation board members to see if they would be interested in serving again. The members last year were Robert Stewart and Dan Lynde representing the board of supervisors, Rhonda Brockamp-Bridge.
