An Activist Board?

Fox17 recently reported that the Ottawa County Compensation Committee had decided to increase commissioner wages by 60% and add a monthly stipend of $1000 for health insurance. I am unsure in what form the stipend would be paid out, but if it were simply a cash stipend, it would increase commissioner wages to approximately $44,000 a year, from the current $20,000 and push Chair and Vice Chair wages even higher.

I remarked on social media that I believed that this recommendation, if not voted down by the Board, would constitute a ‘major disservice’ to Ottawa county residents and taxpayers. I believe that for two reasons:

1. The obvious additional cost to County taxpayers. Rough estimates is that this would add nearly an adddtional $300,000 to the General Fund budget, a not inconsiderable amount of money.

2. The other way in which this does a disservice is that, by tradition and county structure in general, the Commissioner job is not designed to be full time or even near full time. Our roles are appropriation, oversight and constituent service. Prior to 2023, this role could be accomplished with 10-15 hours a week. Starting in 2023, these duties increased, mainly because of differing attitudes and expectationsof the new commissioners who came on to the Board. Overall, I have not shared these attitudes and expectations of the role of my colleagues, but have had to adapt the work load I’ve undertaken in order to represent my constituents, given these changes.

It is my hope that as we go forward, we can gradually return to the concept of a part-time Board, that accomplished its role with 10-15 hours a week. One of the main concerns I have with a potential increase of this nature, besides simply the cost, is that it will make returning to this part time role nearly impossible, and that we will maintain the current posture of an activist Board that is out of character with the structure of our County government going forward, which is not something that I believed has served nor will serve Ottawa County residents well into the future."