At the last Conference Board and Liaison meetings Bill Kealy presented facts to support a request that the Assessor and Deputies' salaries be adjusted by a percentage different from that given to the remaining Assessor's staff.
The Conference Board tabled the issue and directed Bill to return this year with further information to support this request.
Facts used to substantiate the 9% adjustment to the Assessor and Deputies' salaries include salary data from within the Assessor's Office, Pottawattamie County Courthouse, Southwest Iowa and the state of Iowa.
History: It has been recommended from time to time that the Assessor ask for a larger increase in salary for himself and deputies. However the practice of the Assessor in the past was to ask for the same percentage increase that the employees have received from the Conference Board. The Assessor and Deputies do not receive the longevity increases that all other employees in this office are eligible to receive. The result of this past practice is that since 2001 the Assessor's and Deputies' cumulative salaries have increased 25.3% whereas the other employees of the Assessor's Office have received between 31.9% and 35.5% cumulative salary increases. (Chart 1)
If the budget is approved as proposed, the Assessor and Deputies' cumulative salary increase will be brought in line with the cumulative increases of other employees within the Assessor's office. (Chart 2)
Between FY 2001 and FY 2006 the salaries of office holders (excluding the new appointed County Engineer's salary) within the Pottawattamie Courthouse have increased between 27.2% and 47%. The Assessor's salary currently ranks at the bottom of this study. (Chart 3)
The comparison with assessor's salaries in Southwest Iowa (Chart 4) and Twenty Five Most Comparable Jurisdictions (Chart 5) were created using the assessor's salary divided by common units of comparison: number of parcels, number of housing units, population, and assessed valuation of the jurisdiction. In both of these studies the Pottawattamie County Assessor's salary ranks in bottom 15%.
The above studies strongly support the requested 9% adjustment to the Assessor and Deputies' salaries this budget year.