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Wicomico commission seeks more data before proposing county executive pay changes
Summary
The commission discussed salary comparisons with other Maryland charter counties, data gaps on full‑time employee counts and benefits, and agreed to collect more information before making a recommendation to the County Council.
The Wicomico County Compensation Commission on Sept. 10 debated how to set a fair salary for the county executive and agreed to gather additional data from peer counties, department head counts, and benefit/perk details before voting on any recommendation to the County Council.
Commission members said the decision matters because pay recommendations affect county budgets and could trigger a charter change if structured as multi‑year step increases rather than a single dollar amount. Chair Chelsea Phillips Hutton opened the meeting and asked members to approve minutes from the Aug. 20 meeting; the commission later approved those minutes by voice vote.
Members spent most of the session comparing Wicomico with other Maryland charter counties, including Cecil, Anne Arundel and Frederick, and debating which measures should guide compensation: the scope of the executive’s job, county fiscal capacity, or household and per‑capita income measures. “I think, what, in my view is probably the most significant thing we need to consider for these salary, matters,” said Bob Taylor, who presented comparative figures and other data he gathered.
Taylor summarized several figures he said should inform the commission: the current Wicomico county executive salary of $107,000; Cecil County’s executive salary of about $98,000; and a Frederick commission recommendation of $162,000 that Taylor said would average about $149,000 over four years. He also noted Anne Arundel County personnel board recommendations and actions there that produced multi‑year, variable increases. Taylor urged commissioners to consider population served outside municipalities (he cited roughly 45% of Wicomico’s population living inside municipalities), the size of county government and assessable tax base when comparing pay.
Commissioners and staff flagged several information gaps they want filled before a recommendation: exact counts of full‑time county employees (and whether constitutional offices such as the sheriff or state’s attorney are included in those counts), specific executive perks (for example, whether a take‑home vehicle is provided), how other counties define the executive’s responsibilities, and whether multi‑year step increases would require a charter amendment. Laura Hurley, listed in materials provided to the commission, supplied a packet of county comparisons and was asked to pursue clarifications and follow ups with other counties.
The group also discussed how to treat data from nonprofits and private employers. Several commissioners said nonprofit CEO salaries are imperfect comparators because the job duties, fundraising responsibilities and recruitment pools differ from an elected county executive’s duties. Commissioners nonetheless agreed to retain the nonprofit figures as auxiliary context while focusing the primary comparison on similarly structured charter counties.
On process the commission reiterated compliance with the Maryland Open Meetings Act after an earlier exchange about email communications. Commissioner comments emphasized that informational emails to the full membership are permissible so long as they do not constitute a continuous deliberation among a quorum outside a public meeting.
Next steps agreed by the commission: ask Hurley to clarify full‑time employee counts for Wicomico and peer counties (distinguishing county‑administered employees from constitutionally independent offices), verify which counties provide executive take‑home vehicles or other perks, request charter language or job‑scope descriptions from comparison counties, and invite current or former county executives to a future meeting to describe the job’s day‑to‑day responsibilities. Commissioners said they will reconvene with that additional information before taking a formal vote on a recommended salary or structure.
Votes at a glance: The commission approved the minutes from its Aug. 20, 2025 meeting by voice vote; exact tallies were not recorded in the transcript and the mover/second were not specified in the minutes provided to the commission.
The commission did not vote on an executive salary at the Sept. 10 meeting; members agreed to collect the items above and to place the executive recommendation on a future agenda.
