Commissioners Consider Proposal to Increase Pay of Elected Officials Beginning in 2024
CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners are preparing to set the salaries of elected officials who will take office beginning in 2024.
During a special meeting Wednesday night, the board authorized its solicitor to draft a resolution that, if approved, would set the salaries for future county row officers.
Currently the sheriff, treasurer, coroner and controller receive a salary of $45,339 while the prothonotary and register and recorder receive $50,094.
The proposal aims to “mitigate the gap” between the lower-tier offices like the treasurer or coroner, and the higher-tier offices like the prothonotary and register and recorder.
In year one, it calls for a 7.5 percent increase for the sheriff, treasurer, coroner and controller and a 6 percent increase for the commissioners, prothonotary and register and recorder.
Then, it follows a proposed tier of increases of 4 percent in year two and 2 percent in years three and four that would apply to all row officers.
The larger-than-usual, up-front salary increases closely parallel those in the new pacts the county has reached with three of its six unions as well as its non-union salaried employees.
By 2027, the prothonotary and register and recorder will receive $57,455 while the sheriff, treasurer, coroner and controller will receive $52,737 to keep the salary gap almost the same.
Commissioners John A. Sobel and Dave Glass said contrary to public perception, this is not “the commissioners giving the commissioners a raise.”
“It’s for whomever the voters put into office,” said Sobel, with Glass adding that statute prohibits the board from changing their salaries while in office. “We wouldn’t do that anyway.”
When the proposed increases take effect 15 months from now on Jan. 1, 2024, it will end a 14-year salary freeze for nine county elected officials.
Sobel said the county froze salaries as local taxpayers dealt with financial difficulties coming out of The Great Recession but felt it was no longer sustainable for those in office.
“No one would work anywhere …. 10 years without a raise of some sort,” said Glass. “Our own employees wouldn’t. They would be here with knives, torches and pitchforks.”
Sobel noted the commissioners received correspondence, dated Sept. 26, in which the county elected officials requested salary increases comparable to those given to other administrative staff.
Sobel said to the best of his recollection, it was the first time any elected official or group of elected officials had sought a salary increase since he took office.