Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors salaries among candidate forum discussion (AUDIO)

Click on the audio player below to listen to last night’s county candidates portion of the League of Women Voters forum

 

MASON CITY — Salaries of Cerro Gordo County elected officials was one of the topics discussed last night by Board of Supervisor candidates at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

The supervisors have refused pay raises the last eight years with their salary being $52,460, the ninth largest when compared to supervisors in all 99 counties.

First District supervisor Chris Watts says being fiscally responsible was one of his original campaign promises when he first ran for the supervisors.   “A supervisor that was there for 28 years, when his salary, when he started, it was $18,500. The Compensation Board, which others sat on, over the years that went from $18,500 to $52,000 a year the supervisors are paid, and that’s not counting IPERS. I just think that’s extravagant. I didn’t take the job for the money, I took the job to make a difference in Cerro Gordo County and North Iowa.”

Watts accused his opponent, Democratic challenger Tim Lapointe, of suggesting up to 16% pay raises for elected officials during his time on the county’s Compensation Board, which makes yearly recommendations on the salaries of the county’s elected officials. Lapointe denied that and said he would not cut supervisor pay.  “It would be a disservice to my colleagues to do that. I wouldn’t do that to them. What you do is do it across the board. Mr. Watts for all these years put them in a very difficult position saying ‘I’m going to freeze my pay, are you for that?’ Privately, I had heard that the others really wanted a fair raise, but political suicide to say yes when you’re champion of zero raises is for going his own. But the county board of supervisors deserve a raise for all they do, and I don’t think I would disavow my own raise.”

According to previous reporting from compensation board meetings, Lapointe unsuccessfully proposed a 12% increase during their December 2022 meeting.

The First District seat on the supervisors includes all of Mason City’s Third Ward, Ward Two Precinct Two, and Ward Four Precincts Two and Three.