Commissioners planning on giving themselves a raise

Grady County commissioners want to be paid more for their public service to the community and have instructed the county attorney to proceed with the process of increasing the pay for commissioners.
According to Grady County Commission Chairman Charles Norton, the salary for commissioners has been the same since 1939.
“I’ll take the heat for the board. People don’t realize how many hours this board is tied up on county business. At $150 a month, I’m sorry, but they deserve more than that,” Chairman Norton, who is retiring Dec. 31 and will not benefit from the raise, said Tuesday morning.
County attorney Kevin S. Cauley updated the board on his research into the process for increasing commissioners’ pay. Cauley said that under “home rule” provisions of state law the board can vote to increase its own pay, but would need to do so before qualifying opens for the next county election.
Cauley said the raise would not go into effect until 2018, but Norton pointed out there are no commissioners up for re-election in 2017 so couldn’t it go into effect sooner.
Commissioner Ray Prince also questioned if the county could increase the pay through local legislation passed by the Georgia General Assembly. Cauley said that was an option if the salary was set by local legislation to begin with, but said he had not found a reference to that specific local legislation. However, Cauley also admitted he had not searched the records as far back as 1939.
“I will proceed with my research and continue the process by working with (county clerk) Carrie (Kines-Croy) and (county administrator) Carlos (Tobar) if that is your wishes,” Cauley said.
Commissioner T.D. David asked if Grady County commissioners were the lowest paid in the state and Commissioner Prince said yes, they were, according to what he has read.
Commissioners instructed Cauley to proceed with the process and report back at the next meeting.