Professionalism

Star Tribune Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:19:39 GMT
As county boards raise their pay, Dakota, Scott get biggest bumps

Those two got the largest raises among suburban counties, but commissioners say it's a fair wage for an increasingly demanding job. County commissioners in Dakota and Scott counties on Tuesday handed themselves the heftiest pay increases of any of the five major suburban counties. Scott County's commissioners did so a bit uneasily, saying they wished someone else could make that call. But Jon Ulrich, of Savage, offered a brief defense of the 4.6 percent raise, to $47,010. "Over time, this job has become more demanding than ever before," he said of running one of the nation's fastest-growing counties. "It could be almost full time in the future, though we aren't there now." The 5 percent increase for Dakota County's commissioners springs from a salary matrix for all county employees and essentially reflects what most other county workers are getting paid, board Chairman Michael Turner said.

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