7 Comments
User's avatar
Marcia W.'s avatar

Teachers get nonstop days off. Quit comparing them to others.

Bruce's avatar

There are a total of 20 Counties with home rule charters. What are the respective salaries for County Commissioners' in those Counties? If Clay County Commissioners salary sits at the bottom of the rankings, then why not share that with the public?

Joshua Allen's avatar

Hi Bruce, we didn’t cover that because no one had asked that question on any of our articles or social media posts. This piece is an effort to answer the questions being asked most frequently.

Furthermore, what other counties do is their business, Clay should decide what’s right for Clay, not just copy other counties.

Bruce's avatar

So you only answer select questions and don't dig our facts relating to those questions? Let's be transparent and honest. Clay County Commissioner compensation is at the bottom of the barrel. Even Liberty County, with the lowest population in the State, pays their commissioners about $96,922. And their population is only about 8,500. Charlotte County and Alachua County have populations similar to Clay, and they pay $87,300 and $82,930 respectively. Seven of the 20 home rule charter Counties pay commissioners over $100K. Do you really believe that our Clay County Commissioners are so underperforming that they only merit about 1/3 of what other Counties pay their commissioners? And yes, I do think it is fair and reasonable to compare Counties.

Joshua Allen's avatar

Bruce, please point to the part of this article that says what think the commissioners should or shouldn’t be paid. (Hint: it’s not in there)

I do believe not including the dollar amounts on the ballot comes across as an attempt to trick or fool the voters. And I believe that ultimately that’s why this measure will fail, again.

At some point the commissioners themselves will have to raise their hand and make a case for a pay increase. We offered them that very opportunity and only one of them took us up on our offer.

If you’d like to write an op-ed advocating for the pay increase I’d be happy to consider publishing it. You can email it to me at josh@clayviews.com

Bruce's avatar

I suspect that the charter review committee knew that Clay County Commissioners salaries were among the lowest in the State. They knew those salaries hadn't even kept up with inflation, let along have anything like parity with other Counties. They wanted to address it. They were right to address it. They erred in deciding how to address it. I agree that real numbers should have been shown. But why punish the Commissioners because the committee chose an approach that some would perceive as misleading? Why can't we stick to the real issue? If you don't think the Commissioners deserve a raise even though their salaries fall far below the State average, then tell us why.

Joshua Allen's avatar

Again, if you’re willing to speak in favor of the raises, email me “letter to the editor”