Charter Review Commission's Only Proposal Is To Increase Commissioner Pay Raise
The Members Failed To Approve Any Other Charter Revisions
The Clay County Charter Review Commission (CRC) met on March 16th and determined that the only action they will take will be their previously proposed ballot measure to triple the pay of the County Commissioners.
The county commissioners currently earn $37,000 per year, and the CRC’s proposal to align their pay with the state’s formula would raise it to more than $100,000.
The only other actions considered were repealing the county charter altogether and decreasing the frequency at which a charter review commission is convened.
The proposal to repeal the county charter was rejected on the alleged grounds that the CRC lacks the legal authority to do so. Several members of the commission believed that only the state legislature could remove the county’s charter.
If true, that would mean a charter designed to give the county autonomy from the state legislature could be repealed only by the very same legislature the charter was designed to shield the county from. This would make it very tenuous to have a charter at all if the state can simply revoke it at any time.
True or not, the commission voted down the proposal to repeal the charter and moved on to the frequency at which the CRC is convened. The proposal was to lengthen the timeframe from every four to every eight years.
This proposal was ultimately rejected because the majority of commission members thought that 8 years was too long to wait to review commissioner pay, possibly hinting that future CRC’s may want to give the County Commissioners even more money.
Given the way this edition of the Charter Review Commission has operated, it might be time to amend the charter to rename it the “Commissioner Pay Increase Commission.”
Only one member of the public at the meeting spoke to the CRC, and he expressed his displeasure with their focus on increasing commissioner pay.
Nearly an hour of the 90-minute meeting was spent discussing what the commission had previously agreed to do: raise commissioner pay. This time around, the discussion focused on putting the bare-minimum language on the ballot without risking a legal challenge.
Several commission members made sure to lament the alleged 80-hour workweeks and nonstop, round-the-clock job responsibilities that commissioners are supposedly subject to for $37,000 a year.
This sentiment persists among CRC members, despite the fact that none of the current County Commissioners have provided evidence of 80-hour workweeks or nonstop phone calls.
The proposed ballot initiative to amend the charter and increase commissioner pay to over $100k per year now moves to the public comment phase. Anyone who attends the following meetings will have a chance to speak to the CRC:
April 20, 2026 – 5:00 p.m.
May 4, 2026 – 5:00 p.m.
May 18, 2026 – 5:00 p.m.
After those hearings, the finalized ballot language goes to the Board of County Commissioners, which must forward it unchanged to the Supervisor of Elections for the November 2026 ballot.
In previous comments, I presented some facts and rational arguments for why pay raises were justified. Your response was to invite me to send a letter to the editor. I did so, and apparently you chose not to publish it. I take it you won't publish anything that doesn't support your political agenda. So much for journalistic integrity.