The self-proclaimed conservative members of the Jefferson County Council recently approved, in quickity-quick manner, eye-popping raises for the county executive and sheriff.
County Executive Dennis Gannon’s pay will go up 38.1 percent, from $90,477 to $124,971. Sheriff Dave Marshak’s salary will go up 59.2 percent, from $98,134 to $156,214.
Those are nice raises. Those of us who receive Social Security, by contrast, will get a magnificent 3.2 percent boost on Jan. 1.
Gannon and Marshak also will receive their raises on Jan. 1, in the middle of their current terms. I’m certain the County Council checked with the county’s lawyer to make sure that was on the up and up, and per the terms of the county charter passed by voters in 2008.
Sometimes, though, legal and right are not the same thing.
I covered government in Jefferson County for more than 40 years, both on the county and city level. For most of that time, salaries of county officeholders were fixed in stone, unless changed by the Missouri Legislature.
Salaries for city mayors, aldermen and city council members were quite low – those are public service gigs – but when they were raised, the new rates never took effect until the next term. That way, members were not voting on raising their own salaries. Potential challengers had a chance to decide if the new salary was worth running for in the next election.
All very sensible and fair.
To be clear, the County Council did the voting this time and did not raise its own salaries. But it did bestow gigantic raises – at public expense – on two county officeholders, in midterm.
That it would be done so quickly – proposed at one meeting, approved at the next – is curious and curiouser. Amazingly, a small band of residents spontaneously materialized at the meetings to support the raises.
When I read their comments, I had a flashback to a long-ago applicant for a reporting job here at the Leader. His resume included at least a half-dozen letters of commendation from public figures he had dealt with at his previous job.
Maybe I was jealous, never having received one such letter in all my decades of work, but I asked the young fellow if, by chance, he had solicited those letters. His head dropped and he admitted that he had.
I had a second flashback when recalling an editorial board interview with candidate Marshak when he first ran for sheriff in 2016. Marshak is a smart, articulate young man. He handled the interview with confidence and did well. At the end, I had one more question.
“Your campaign literature says you are ‘the conservative choice,’” I said. “What does that mean for a sheriff?”
For a cop, Marshak has a pretty good grin. He unleashed his best one as his answer, grinning like a Cheshire cat, or a mule eating ice. Possibly even, as my dear old Dad used to say, like a sackful of possum heads.
All politicians in Jefferson County and any rural county are conservative. They plaster it on their campaign fliers and use the word to describe themselves as much as possible.
They do that because they know it’s the first checkmark voters look for, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the job.
County Council members, though, do have a chance to walk the walk. They can be conservative where it counts most – in their spending.
These raises were a big fail.
Interestingly, the County Council has sat on its hands since August and not taken meaningful conservative action that would help a much larger number of its constituents.
That was when a new state law allowing local entities to freeze property taxes for senior citizens went into effect. Passing an ordinance enacting that in Jefferson County would be conservative.
Instead they gave out 38- and 59-percent raises to two people.
That was not the conservative choice.
Marshak and Gannon have not had a raise since they took office, which is coming up on eight years for Marshak and five for Gannon.
Marshak and his spontaneous supporters pointed out that several police chiefs in the county make more than he does, with far smaller departments and responsibilities.
True facts. But here’s how the County Council should have handled it.
■ No raises within the term. Candidates for any office agree to serve that term, if elected, for the posted salary. Period.
■ If the county wants to raise pay, fine. But phase it in. Giving a 59 percent raise all at once is a tone-deaf slap in the face to taxpayers. It also is evidence of prior mismanagement or at least poor planning. And it is definitely not conservative.
■ Speaking of taxpayers, how about that property tax freeze? Your conservative brothers and sisters teed it up for you in Jefferson City. So pass the ordinance already. Are you really conservatives, or is that just a campaign slogan?
