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Commission of Pardons and Parole seeks higher per‑diem amid turnover; commissioners say prep work is unpaid
Summary
The Commission of Pardons and Parole requested a statutory change to raise commissioner pay from $300 to $400 per hearing day and asked for replacement laptops; commissioners and staff told the committee the role requires substantial unpaid preparation time and the agency warned of high turnover risk.
The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole asked the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee to support a statutory pay increase for commissioners from $300 to $400 per hearing day and to approve a modest IT replacement allocation.
Christine Starr, executive director of the Commission of Pardons and Parole, told the committee the seven‑member panel carried out 6,670 decisions in fiscal 2024 and that commissioners last received a pay increase in 2017. The commission requested statutory authority to raise compensation and asked the committee to support the associated fiscal impact if the Legislature adopts the bill. LSO estimated the fiscal impact at $59,300 if pay is raised from $300 to $400.
Starr said commissioners typically do three weeks of hearings per month and that their statutory compensation covers hearing days only. She told committee members that commissioners spend substantial additional unpaid hours preparing: she estimated that for a typical five‑day hearing week a commissioner spends about 26 hours preparing the cases — roughly 3.25 days of unpaid work per hearing cycle.
Senator Wintrow and other committee members noted that commissioners must review lengthy hearing files and asked whether unpaid prep time creates recruitment and retention problems. Starr said candidates frequently decline because of inadequate compensation and warned she expected to lose more than half the commission by December, which would reduce institutional knowledge and require attention to recruitment.
The commission also requested nine replacement laptops (about $12,600) recommended by the Office of Information Technology Services. No appropriations were decided in the hearing; Starr said the commission will examine its practices and legislative staff will consider the statutory change needed to implement any pay increase.
