A House bill that would have boosted the pay of Clayton County commissioners by $15,000 failed Monday after receiving less than the two-thirds majority required to move the legislation forward.
Clayton’s delegation to the Georgia Legislature had sought to increase Chairman Jeff Turner’s 2018 base salary 12 percent — from $126,265 a year to $141,265 — while the county’s four other commissioners sought a 74 percent pay hike, jumping from a 2018 base of $20,202 a year to $35,202.
They argued that Clayton’s commission is one of the lowest paid in metro Atlanta and that the request was make their salaries more representative of the area. Turner’s position as chairman is full-time while his four colleagues on the board are part-time.
“I have to poll the rest of the commissioners to see if they want to drop it or proceed on,” Turner said Tuesday about next steps. “I would be surprised if they just said they wanted to drop it because the mindset is they are doing a whole lot of work.”
The move is the latest in metro Atlanta in which city and county leaders have sought to increase their annual compensation at a time when rank-and-file workers complain their salaries are falling behind.
A DeKalb Superior Court Judge in January began considering the merits of a lawsuit brought against the DeKalb County Commission over a 60 percent raise members of the commission gave themselves in 2018. Two years earlier, the Gwinnett County Commission approved a 51 percent increase in their pay, despite protests from residents.
The $15,000 increase in base pay for Clayton Commissioners does not include other compensation such as insurance or other cost-of-living adjustments. When those are added in, Turner’s $126,265 base salary in 2018 would have jumped to $156,655.
Clayton resident Micky Garber said the south metro community’s leaders were doing an end-run around citizen input by seeking a state sanction of the raises instead of bringing the matter before the commission where the public could have some input.
“I would have certainly appreciated had they asked us instead of going to the state,” said Garber, a regular face at Clayton Commission meetings. “Since I’m paying their salaries, they should have asked me instead of Gov. [Brian] Kemp.”
Drew Andrews, another Clayton resident, was more sympathetic to the commissioners.
“I’m in favor of it,” he said. “They are getting part-time pay for a full-time job.”
Turner said the commission has been trying to increase the pay of Clayton county workers across the board, including as much as 6.25 percent for county employees making under $50,000 and up to 3.75 percent for those make more than 50,000 a year.
He said county leaders chose the legislative route for the raise not as a way of avoiding public scrutiny, but to get the raises quicker. If they had been approved by the state and signed into law by Kemp, the commissioners would have received their pay increase immediately afterward. If the commission brings it up at a meeting later this year and it passes, the money would not be available until 2020.
By the numbers
Total compensation for Clayton County Commissioners has risen 1 percent to 6 percent over the last five years.
Chairman
2014: $139,295
2015: $140,688
2016: $149,110
2017: $153,584
2108: $156,655
Commissioners
2014: $22,450
2015: $22,675
2016: $24,046
2017: $24,768
2018: $25,263
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