Bob Fowler has an interesting story this morning, but to me, the most shocking news is old news.
County elected officials in Tennessee are paid according to a state scale based upon population ranges, and officeholders in Anderson County are seeking to be reclassified to the 150,000 to 175,000 population range to close the gap between the pay of those offices and that of the County Mayor. The County Mayor is paid based on the salary for counties having a population of 200,000 – 225,000, or $92,648.
Anderson County has a population of 71,330 according to the 2000 Census.
According to the article, the change in the County Mayor’s salary was made “years ago.” I’m not sure when, and I’m not sure why, except that it does seem plausible that a lower salary would attract few really qualified candidates. As it is, it seems tough to entice attractive candidates.
Looking at the census tables, there isn’t any county in the 200,000-225,000 range; after Shelby, Davidson, Knox and Hamilton, the largest is Rutherford Co. at 182,023. Anderson is 15th in population ranking.
However, this response is the one that nearly made me choke on my coffee:
Lynch on Monday voiced objections to any pay hike request that doesn’t include the county mayor, calling such a move “discrimination.”
Lynch’s salary is already that of someone in his position in a county three times the size of ours, and he thinks that it’s “discrimination” to bring the others up to wages set for counties twice the size of Anderson without raising his own? Does he really think he’s that much better than every other elected officeholder in the County?
I don’t care what he thinks, frankly, and I’m offended that we elected someone who is actually capable of expressing such a sentiment.
I believe that a higher salary was given to the previous County Executive as a reward for his efforts at industrial development and other accomplishments. He had a proven record of achievement over many years and deserved that type of compensation.
This County Mayor received the higher salary plus raises by virtue of being elected and so far his record of accomplishments and achievement is abysmal in comparison. Can you imagine Mr. Lynch trying to manage a county three times the size of Anderson County? If it weren’t for his right hand man he wouldn’t be able to manage this county. It is obvious that his statement to the press wasn’t pre approved by Mr. Beauchamp otherwise he would have never made it as it shows his arrogance and how of touch he is with the taxpayers.
As to his statement of discrimination it shows that even after a major settlement of a discrimination suit brought on by his actions he still doesn’t understand the concept.
The easier thing to do is to reduce his salary to the state mandated salary as that saves the taxpayers money now and in the future and it fits his mantra.
Yeah, I see no reason to maintain a salary like this. I don’t think ‘attracting qualified candidates’ is enough of a reason.
What a douche.