Judicial commissioners are going to receive a $3 pay increase after Commissioner Tommy Savage pled their case at the Warren County Commission meeting Monday night.
Throughout budget season, judicial supervisor David Williams and Savage have been requesting a pay increase for judicial commissioners and it did not get much traction. Last month, an attempt at a $3 flat raise instead of a $2,500 flat increase failed in a Budget and Finance Committee meeting, but Savage brought it back up during Monday night’s full court meeting when he made a motion to amend the resolution for Fiscal Year 22-23 Appropriation to include a judicial commissioner pay increase of $3 per hour.
“In the past year we have had two retire, one retire because they were running for public office, and had two who are experiencing serious health issues, and we have had one who has passed away,” said Savage. “This raise that I am asking for will encourage those we have to stay and also to encourage others to apply for this job.”
He also explained Williams is working overtime every pay period due to shortages.
“Our supervisor David Williams has been logging in around 160 hours per pay period to cover for shortages. This can’t go on,” said Savage. “It is eating up our budget, plus it is going to finally wear him down and we don’t have anyone else we can bring in. It is a tough job and it is a thankless job. We need to raise this just a little bit. If we raise it, it will increase the budget for the judicial commissioners by $20,663. Overall after you consider benefits it will raise it by around $22,000. That will still leave us at a fund balance of 20.05% and 10% is all that is required by the state.”
Commissioner Steven Helton agreed with Savage and said as chair of the Policy and Personnel Committee, he has seen the low interest in the position.
“We went months running ads for this position and had zero applicants who applied. Being over Policy and Personnel we see this. We have got to do something because we have to have judicial commissioners,” said Helton.
Helton also pointed out this pay increase would cost the county less than paying Williams overtime. The starting pay for a judicial commissioner was $9 an hour.
“We might as well be proactive here and put this pay increase in place because it is probably going to end up saving us money,” said Helton.
The motion passed 17-3 with Commissioners Scott Rubley, Cole Taylor, and Blaine Wilcher voting against it. Commissioners Randy England, Joseph Stotts, Carl D. Bouldin, and David Dunlap were absent.
