There’s a saying found in the Old Testament book of Proverbs – known as one of the Wisdom Books – that encourages, “Saying the right thing at the right time is like a golden apple in a silver setting.”
Such was the case at last Tuesday’s board meeting when plainspoken, normally subservient Commissioner Bobby Deschampe, quieted the rhetoric related to commissioners’ compensation, with these “golden” words:
“I don’t see a reason to change the compensation. You knew when you signed up for this position …what it contained. You knew what you were getting into. To get into it and then all of a sudden you’re not making enough money? You’re in it for the wrong reason. I’m in it to help my district, which I have since I’ve been here.”
Commissioner Deschampe added to the “silver setting” by making a motion to keep the 2020 compensation the same as 2019.
Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk, to her credit, supported the motion; but begrudgingly, as evidenced by her 3:33- minute monologue on the difference between “housekeeping” and “commissioning”:
“This is not a $10 an hour job that we’re supposed to be doing. This is important. This is not a joke. And it is public service. Everyone that works for us is public service and they are appropriately compensated for what they do for this community.”
Doo-Kirk bemoaned the fact that, one of the things “she very intently did was change the health insurance compensation. So, since I have been elected, basically, my pay has been cut. You know and I know that some people see it as the opposite and they see, well, you get health insurance. Yes, that is a benefit and yes, it is covered, but what I take home in my paycheck has changed significantly since I got hired.”
Let’s hope this becomes a lesson in empathy, for Commissioner Doo-Kirk, for struggling taxpayers who deal with this reality on a daily basis.
Here’s what the other commissioners had to say on the subject:
Commissioner Mills: “To Commissioner Deschampe’s point … again, this isn’t about us, this is about this position and the reality of costs increasing, the cost-of-living actually increasing. So, yah, we all certainly made sacrifices to take this position and we did know what we’re getting into. But I also know that I want to have a sustainable future for leadership so that’s just the reality of costs …price of butter.”
Commissioner Myron Bursheim: “I know my comments were pretty much based upon the information that was shared that we’re in the bottom part of the pay scale for Minnesota counties out of the 87 and I guess I’d want to know that for sure before I’d support that … and make it on the basis of data.”
So who is going to take the initiative to get that data?
It’s evidently never happened in the past umpteen years, didn’t happen during the compensation study, which we shelled out $50,000 plus in taxpayer dollars and, in the end, essentially ignored its findings?
As Commissioner Doo-Kirk alluded to in her opening remarks, “I learned we missed an opportunity when we hired for the comp study for the staff. We left ourselves out …we would have been able to gather data doing that and do comparisons, so that’s unfortunate.”
In the past couple of weeks, I took the initiative to make phone calls to 22 counties – the majority of which were selected for the compensation study. Two of the counties not included in the comp study, due to their size, were Crow Wing and Itasca. These two counties were, however, among the Iron Range Fiscal Disparities program counties.
As reported in recent columns, of these 22 counties, only two had higher compensation packages for commissioners: Crow Wing County, with a population 12 times that of Cook and a budget nearly three-and-one-half times higher than ours, came in with the highest commissioner compensation at $48,246. Itasca County, with a population eight-and-one-half times that of Cook and a budget nearly six times that of Cook, compensate their commissioners at $47,695. Cook County’s average compensation for 2019 was $44,108. Of the other 22 counties, it was learned, all paid their commissioners less than Cook County. Eighty-six percent were under Cook County’s commissioner compensation by at least $4,539!
Given these findings, it’s hard to accept assertions, from our commissioners, that they are “in the bottom part of the pay scale.” Especially, when commissioners readily admit, as the commissioner with the most seniority – Doo-Kirk – conceded, “It’s too hard …sitting here having conversations with each other, not having any data.”
An oft-repeated quote by John Adams comes to mind, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Four of the five commissioners supported the motion to keep their compensation the same as 2019. Commissioner Ginnie Storlie was the only one to oppose the motion.
Let’s just say, there are apples and there are apples . . .
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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