County board discusses pay increases for commissioners

How much compensation an elected official receives will impact who runs for local office, according to at least two of the Cook County commissioners.

Among a variety of other topics, the county board discussed their pay structure for 2020 during a meeting a meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, Dec. 3. After a somewhat lengthy discussion, the board agreed to table the decision until their next meeting regarding their compensation for next year. That being the case, there were sentiments expressed yesterday by the county board that the salary for commissioners should be increased in Cook County. 

Commissioner Dave Mills said current salaries for the county board restricts who is able to serve as a county commissioner. He added that certain counties set their pay scale so that only wealthy business owners can run for local office.

The 2019 salaries for Cook County Commissioners range from nearly $24,000 for Ginny Storlie as the board chair to approximately $22,400 for the other commissioners. Vice Chair Myron Bursheim receives an extra $500 for his role as the second in command. The schedule of per diems for the commissioners this year is $100 for all approved meetings and activities.

Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk said any changes or suggested changes regarding pay increases for the commissioners have not been well received by the general public and local taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers says the most recent pay increase was in 2000 or 2002 when the commissioner salaries climbed from approximately $15,000 to $22,000. When there is a lag time for increasing commissioner salaries these types of large increases take place, Powers said.

Doo-Kirk said Cook County is typically in the lower tier of payment for commissioners. She agreed with Mills that this does restrict who can run for local office.

Increases to county board compensation must be approved prior to the year in which they take effect, according to Powers. Decreases can take effect any time during the year. The board compensation must be published annually as part of the minutes of the meeting at which they are approved.

The next regular meeting of the county board is Dec. 17. The commissioners must decide at that meeting if they will increase their salaries for 2020.
 
Board Chair for 2020
At their first meeting in January 2020 the commissioners will select a chair and vice chair. During Tuesday’s meeting the commissioners discussed the selection process for who will serve in these roles. The opinions varied on this topic, and ultimately the county board opted to wait until their next meeting to determine a selection process. Storlie, the current board chair, suggested a successional process where whomever is vice chair would then become chair and the board would collectively choose who is the vice chair each year. None of the other commissioners appeared to support this method, with Commissioner Mills suggesting the board spend the next several weeks researching how other counties select or nominate who will serve as chair and vice chair.
 
BWCA Payments
At the end of yesterday’s meeting, the county board discussed the Thye-Blatnik bill which provides payments in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT) to Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties for land in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

A valuation process is completed every 10 years to determine how much each county receives through this piece of legislation. The most recent appraisal of the BWCA was done in 2009, when Cook County’s annual payments increased from just over $704,000 to $2.25 million.

This year St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties are still awaiting word on the valuation of federal lands inside the BWCA, though it has been long speculated that each county stands to receive far less this year from the federal government.

Commissioner Bursheim said the latest update as of Monday morning is that all three counties are still waiting to hear how much they will receive.

As for who is responsible for the possible decline in payments, Bursheim said it is not fair to blame the U.S. Forest Service. Rather, Bursheim explained, the amount allocated to the counties is determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and who is elected into office in Washington D.C.

With nothing to actually report specific to the payments, Bursheim said the determination for BWCA funds provided to the county should be finalized within two weeks.
 
The audio below contains more information from the compensation conversation for commissioners as it was discussed during Tuesday’s meeting.