Elected county officials salaries in Oklahoma may rise under new law
Date: July 18, 2010
A change to state law may force counties in Oklahoma to pay elected officials the highest possible salaries under state law if they aren`t already doing so.
- Oklahoma County -
A one-word change to state law has sparked confusion about whether elected county officials in Oklahoma are now guaranteed the highest salaries allowed by law.
The revised law doesn`t go into effect until November, but one county commissioner eager for his first raise in four years already raised his salary and those of the county`s other elected officials to the highest allowed under state law.
The decision by Comanche County Commissioner Ron Kirby outraged several county officials there, including a judge who criticized it as unwise at a time when many public agencies are facing serious budget problems.
"Your common sense has been vaporized by your never-ending crusade to raise your salary," District Judge Allen McCall wrote in a scathing June 30 letter to Kirby. "Like most people in the courthouse, you have a great job with a very generous salary. Are you so greedy that you can`t understand that?"
The officials` salaries were raised from about $58,000 to about $61,000, but Kirby, 70, quickly retracted the raises after realizing the law wasn`t in effect yet. He and the other elected officials paid back the extra money they had received - a couple hundred dollars each.
Kirby, a former state representative, admitted to the mistake and said much of the controversy there stems from his ongoing feuds with the county excise board, which must approve county budgets but has not approved his request for raises for elected officials for the past four years.
"It`s kind of ironic they put me in charge of an $8 million budget, yet they want to send out for a cheap guy to do it," Kirby said.
Implications are far-ranging
The larger issue, however, is whether the new law forces counties to pay elected officials the highest salaries possible even if they don`t want to do so.
Their salaries include a base salary plus an amount determined by a formula that factors in county property valuations and population.
State law used to say counties "may" pay elected officials up to the maximum amount determined under that formula; House Bill 2573 changed the law to say counties "shall" pay them that amount.
Gov. Brad Henry signed the bill last month. Most of the bill deals with medical costs at county jails.
However, the one-word change regarding salaries could have statewide implications.
"It infuriates me," said Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan, who successfully fought against raises for Oklahoma County elected officials last year. "This is just worthless. Absolutely worthless."
Oklahoma County and several other counties do not pay elected officials the maximum amount allowed under the formula. Maughan said the new law appears to give counties no way to opt out of doing so in the future.
"I`ve already visited with legislators and gotten commitments to run legislation next year to strike this provision in the law," Maughan said. "There`s some legislators who are awfully hot because they had this snuck in on them."
The bill was authored by Rep. John Trebilcock, R-Broken Arrow, and Senate Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City. Neither returned calls seeking comment.
Lobbyist requested change
Lobbyist Dave Herbert, who represents the County Officers and Deputies Association, said he recommended the change to Trebilcock.
Herbert said an attorney general`s opinion released in April dealing with elected county officials` salaries was found to contradict a similar opinion released about a decade ago. The opinion was then retracted so the issue could be studied further.
At issue in the opinion were unequal salaries for county elected officials. Herbert said an assistant attorney general told him the best way to avoid unequal salaries for county officials in the interim would be to change the "may" to "shall" in the pertinent portion of the law.
"We were just trying to make the law consistent. We were not trying to give anyone a raise or not give them a raise," Herbert said. "For some reason, Kirby felt it gave him a reason to do whatever he wanted to do."
Herbert said counties that don`t have the money or don`t want to pay elected officials the most possible under the property and population formula can reduce the officials` base salary to make up the difference.
Herbert and Kirby denied ever speaking to one another about the bill.
Kirby said he didn`t know anything about the bill until it passed the Legislature.
"I did not talk to anybody," Kirby said. "I`m sitting here on the sidelines getting beat up, and I`m thinking, `What in the hell did I do?`"
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