St. Clair County Board approves salary increases for elected officials starting in 2021
A St. Clair County Board member was the lone dissenter Monday night when the board voted to increase the salaries of some elected officials.
Ed Cockrell said pay raises should be avoided during the COVID-19 pandemic since there is no way to tell what the future holds for the coronavirus and its impact on the economy.
“Giving anyone a raise at this time is shortsighted,” he said, urging others to vote against the raises. “We don’t know where things are going right now.”
County Board Chairman Mark Kern argued that the salaries will not go into place until 2021 and sparred with Cockrell, saying he “always votes against raises anyway.”
The ordinance approved Monday set salary raises for different elected offices incrementally over the next several years.
Cockrell called the vote an “insult” to taxpayers who are struggling or have lost their jobs.
Raises for members of the county board and the chairman are not included.
Salaries for the county sheriff, treasurer, assessor and county clerk will increase across the board 2% in 2021 and 2022. Officials holding those offices will be paid an annual salary of $102,765 by 2022.
Other newly reelected or elected officials will see raises beginning in 2022 . The auditor, circuit clerk, coroner and recorder of deeds will see a 1.34% raise in 2022, a 1.32% raise in 2023 and a 1.31% raise in 2024. The annual salary for each of these positions will go from $98,776 in 2022 to $102,765 in 2024.
The ordinance includes an established rule that no officials elected to a countrywide office or as a county board member can draw a pension and be paid the salary.
Board members on pensions are paid $2,000 annually, while the others earn $19,419. Kern is paid $98,899 per year.
Belleville City Council freezes raises
As part of the 2020-21 fiscal year budget approved by the Belleville City Council on Monday, aldermen included an amendment to freeze the 2% pay raise nonunion employees were due to receive when the new fiscal year begins May 1.
And in a show of solidarity with those employees, the city’s three elected officials - Mayor Mark Eckert, City Clerk Jenny Gain Meyer and Treasurer Dean Hardt - said Tuesday they will not take the 2% pay raise they were expected to receive on May 1. These raises were originally set by an ordinance passed in 2016.
Eckert told the aldermen he proposed the budget amendment for the nonunion employees “in an effort to help with offsetting the financial shortfalls we’re going to be experiencing.”
The city expects to save $85,000 this fiscal year by freezing the salaries of the 55 nonunion employees, Eckert said. This estimate is down slightly from the initial estimate of $89,000.
Reporter Mike Koziatek contributed to this article.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the amount certain officials would be making by 2024 in St. Clair County. That number has been corrected.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 5:14 PM.