County officials to get $57,000 After a variety of numbers are voted down, four elected department chiefs learn pay for their next term By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The Brown County Board sounded a lot like Goldilocks on Wednesday during its discussion of the pay for the upcoming terms of four county elected officials. $61,000 a year? Too high. $53,000? Too low. In the end, they found $57,000 was just right, approving the amount 19-6. But that came after lengthy discussion and comments from the incumbents in two of the four jobs, treasurer Kerry Blaney and register of deeds Cathy Williquette. The other two positions are county clerk and clerk of circuit court. By state law, salaries for the terms for those positions have to be set by June 1 before the November election. The board's Executive Committee had set salaries of $62,500 after its own lengthy discussion. But many members of the board felt the four officers were being paid too much after a compensation study in 2002 that raised pay as much as 30 percent. This year, the county clerk and register of deeds will receive $61,549; the treasurer $67,309 and the court clerk $70,187. Various charts offered options for the pay. Sup. Patrick Evans suggested $57,000, which would have been what the officers would receive based on a 3 percent increase every year since 1996, a scale Sup. Guy Zima supported but called "generous." A chart from the county's human resources department showed that counties near Brown in population paid, on average, from $58,665 to $62,971 for the posts. Nearby counties averaged in a smaller range from $49,186 to $50,665, although many of those counties are well below Brown County in population. Sup. Tom Hinz said the compensation study by an outside source had been fair and there was no reason to cut the pay, but Evans said the pay should be in line with comparable counties and urged board members to think of the effect on labor negotiations. One area where many board members agreed was that the four positions should have the same pay, and with one exception, most of the suggested amounts followed that rule. First, Sup. Andy Nicholson suggested a cut to $53,000, a vote that failed 20-5 with Nicholson, Earl Van Den Heuvel, John Vander Leest, Joe Backman and Mary Scray supporting it. A motion by Sup. Fred Graves to pay the treasurer $59,000 and the rest $57,000 was voted down 21-4, and a vote on paying all four $59,000 lost 18-7 with Jack Krueger, Pat Collins, Kathy Johnson, Michael Frohna, Craig Beyl and Bill Clancy backing it. Finally, the board passed the $57,000 salary with Nicholson, Krueger, Frohna, Collins, Mike Fleck and Tom Hinz voting no.