Cole County Salary Commission approves 5% pay increase for elected officials, adopts same COLA as county employees

Cole County's Salary Commission voted Oct. 28 to give elected county officials a 5% pay increase and to grant them the same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that county employees receive.

The commission appointed Larry Vincent as chairman at the start of the meeting and then took up a county clerk briefing and a lengthy discussion about elected-official pay. Public Administrator Ralph Jobe described the growing demands of his office and warned the commission that low pay and rising workload were making it difficult to attract qualified successors. "It's a 24/7 job," Jobe said, describing clients spread across multiple counties and increasing responsibilities as mental-health services shifted to community-based care.

The commission debated the form and timing of any raise. Commissioners cited state law and first-class county salary schedules and noted that any across-the-board percentage or dollar change must follow statutory timing rules for first-class counties. One member summarized a likely scenario: applying the assessed-valuation schedule would have produced about a $4,000 increase per affected official (roughly 5%), which one commissioner estimated would cost about $20,000 when half the offices are affected in 2027 and about $40,000 when the other half are affected in 2029 as staggered terms take effect.

After discussion, a motion to grant a 5% pay increase for Cole County elected officials was moved and seconded. The commission conducted a roll-call vote; the recorded votes in the transcript show seven members voting yes and five voting no, and the chair announced that the yeses prevailed. The roll call as recorded in the meeting transcript listed the following votes: Ralph Jobe (yes); Sheriff Wheeler (yes); Bushman (no); Assessor Theroff (no); Larry Vincent (yes); Locke Thompson (yes); Didi Ridgeway (yes); Eric Peters (yes); Jim Hellscher (no); Jay Moore (no); Steve Korsmeyer (yes); Harry Otto (no).

Separately, the commission also voted to adopt the same COLA for elected officials that county employees receive in the approved county budget. That motion passed by roll call; the transcript records a majority of yes votes and two no votes. The commission discussed statutory constraints and the requirement that the elected-official COLA cannot exceed the employee COLA.

Commissioners repeatedly emphasized the limited budgetary impact relative to the county's total budget but acknowledged uncertainty from the county's pending salary study and from near-term budget pressures. County Clerk Jay Moore had earlier reported budget headwinds including flattened sales tax receipts, exhausted ARPA funds, the end of marijuana sales-tax receipts and health-insurance costs projected to grow by about 20%; Moore said he planned to propose a 2% COLA for the general budget and no merit increases pending study results.

No additional formal actions were recorded on salaries at the meeting. Several commissioners asked staff to confirm statutory language and implementation timing before final budget entries are prepared; the commission also discussed which fiscal year the increases would affect and noted the staggered effect on officials who take office in different years. The commission adjourned after completing the votes.