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Row officer pay rates

Cumberland County row officers were budgeted to receive pay increases of 5 percent in 2009. An ordinance passed by a prior board of commissioners set their annual raises at a minimum of 3 percent and a maximum of 5 percent.

The district attorney’s salary is set by a different statute from the commissioners and other elected officials.

Salaries will be determined by the area’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), as of Dec. 31, according to Dana Best, the county’s director of finance, which will be published in mid-January.

The CPI was 4.6 percent when the budget was developed. Currently, it is 2.8 percent, so the minimum 3 percent is likely the raise elected officials will see. By law, they have to take it, but can donate the money back during the year.

The 2008 salaries of the Cumberland County row officers were as follows:

• Treasurer John Gross - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Coroner Mike Norris - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Controller Al Whitcomb - $64,253 ($66,181 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Register of Wills Glenda Farner-Strasbaugh - $64,360 ($66,291 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Prothonotary Curt Long - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Recorder of Deeds Robert Ziegler - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Sheriff Tom Kline - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Clerk of Courts Dennis Lebo - $59,852 ($61,648 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• Jury Commissioners Larry Babbits and Ralph Viehman Jr. - $13,920 ($14,338 with 3 percent raise in 2009)

• District Attorney Dave Freed - $156,440 ($160,820 with 2.8 percent CPI raise in 2009)

— County finance department

By Jason Scott, Sentinel Reporter, December 16, 2008

Last updated: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:54 PM EST

Several of the Cumberland County row officers say they were quite surprised when the board of commissioners decided to forgo scheduled pay increases on Thursday.

An e-mail from Chairman Commissioner Gary Eichelberger was sent out to all elected officials Wednesday evening, informing them that, given the current economic and financial conditions, the commissioners were considering the idea of giving back salary increases for 2009. The letter also urged the 11 row officers to follow suit.

Eichelberger has called this “a textbook example of where everyone doing a small share adds up to a big result,” and said it’s “not unreasonable for the public to look to other elected officials to provide a good example as well.”

Prior to the e-mail, there had been no discussions between the commissioners and other county officials regarding the raises, Treasurer John Gross explained.

“It is obvious from the e-mail I received from the commissioner that they were discussing this for a while and never informed us until the last minute,” he said following the announcement. “I do not appreciate them blindsiding any of us on matters that affect our families and no time to rationally discuss and make a decision.”

Other row officers interviewed last week were in agreement.

After a few days to think on it, five of them said Monday they will go along with the commissioners and return what figures to be 3 percent raises when the area’s Consumer Price Index is released for the end of the year. A current ordinance provides a minimum raise of 3 percent and maximum of 5 percent, which was the budgeted figure by the county finance department.

“The commissioners are very sincere. I don’t think any of us took this job to look at this as private gain,” said Gross, who was joined in the discussion by Sheriff Tom Kline, Recorder of Deeds Robert Ziegler and Clerk of Courts Dennis Lebo.

By law, the elected officials have to take the increase, but they can then donate it back. It is taxable income.

“None of us knows how this is going to shake out,” Ziegler said. “We’re all in different tax brackets.”

The consensus, which also included District Attorney Dave Freed, was that once the increase was earned and the taxes have been paid, the elected officials will donate the money back.

Freed said he plans to donate his raise to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Kline said he wants to determine how much money his raise will be, but all four will likely send it back to the county’s general fund.

“The commissioners have spoken of sacrifice,” Freed said in a statement. “My young heroes who live with this disease every day truly understand the meaning of that word, and I am proud to offer my support to them, their families and the scientists who are working every day to find a cure.”

To return the raise to the county would set a precedent, he added, that a district attorney should be personally responsible for funding his office when that is the “clear obligation” of the county commissioners.

“I will not do that, nor will I have my actions be used as an example against my colleagues around the commonwealth,” Freed said. “Still, I understand the meaning of the commissioners’ actions in these difficult and uncertain economic times and I join my elected colleagues in the belief that their motives are pure.”

All five said they are running about as lean as they can, budget-wise. Other row officers did not respond to calls and e-mails for comment.

“I think we are all trying to look at ways to reduce because we have to,” Kline said.

Gross compared 1960 to 2008. His office had four people then and it has four today.

Lebo pointed to his time in office since 1998. From then until now, the criminal dockets have increased almost 48 percent. Since 2006 alone, the monthly average of documents filed has gone from 5,390 to 6,501 in 2008.

Officials would have liked to have seen this worked out before the announcement was made, Gross added.

“In this economic climate, why don’t they ask department heads to forgo step increases and cost-of-living (adjustments)?” he asked.

A 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment was built into the 2009 budget for the county’s more than 1,000 employees. However, that could easily be suspended or deferred if conditions worsen, Eichelberger said.

“The county will be lucky to get through next year without sending a chunk of its workforce home without pay for a few weeks,” he said.