HR County Budget Committee - Compensation Discussion

Engage the Gorge

Published · January 30 at 10:08 PM ·

The Hood River County Board of Commissioners will meet on Monday, February 1, beginning at 3pm. Items on the agenda include:

- Debating what kind of direction to give to staff and the budget committee (appointed by the commissioners) so that they in turn can recommend how to determine compensation for the sheriff and the commissioners.

County Commissioners in Hood River County receive $16,303 annually (unsure about retirement/medical/etc), while the Chair receives $20,931. The sheriff's compensation is $99,438. 2019 Sheriff salaries in some "comparable" counties include Gilliam ($88,830), Sherman ($96,336), Wasco ($94,320), Tillamook ($100,848), Union ($90,723).

At the last meeting where this was raised, Chair Oates was unsure how to evaluate comparisons or to set a direction, and preferred to wait for Arthur Babitz to join the commission. We'll find out on Monday afternoon what direction they provide. Note: In some private industries, there'd be discussion about department size (i.e. # of FTE's managed by the department), which may indicate something of the complexity of the management staff plus the scope of work in terms of law enforcement.

Commissioners in other counties can be full-time officials, or part-time, and salaries can range from $0 to six figures (Multnomah, for instance).

Other items on the agenda:

- The Covid update

- Forest Trails representative

- A consent agenda item about switching to a new law firm for labor negotiations (those keeping score with us will recall the summer discussion where commissioners were upset at the arbitration decision loss involving the sheriff and the union contract discussions)

Visit the county website for the (painful) sign-in info for Webex if you want to view it live.