OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The conversation over potential pay raises for elected Ottawa County officials picked back up Thursday.
It's been nearly two weeks since the county chairperson said the Compensation Commission's recommendation wasn't valid. Now the group is meeting again.
Here are four things you need to know:
- The Ottawa County Compensation Commission meets every two years to recommend pay raises for elected leaders.
- The Commission must make a determination within 45 days after its first meeting of the year.
- In April, raises were approved for county commissioners and other elected officials that would take effect in 2025.
- The Board of Commissioners sent these recommendations back to the Compensation Commission after learning about potential legal issues.
The Compensation Commission held a new vote Thursday. Members met to "reenact" their vote held back in April. The reason is that the April meeting wasn't notified, which put into question whether they violated the Open Meetings Act.
“The only purpose for it was just to make sure within the Open Meeting Act, and that, according to our corporate counsel, that gave us the ability to go back and recreate it,” says Interim County Administrator Jon Anderson. “So we do have the public's ability to come.”
In a five-to-zero vote Thursday, this group agreed that the prosecutor, treasurer, clerk and water resources commissioner could see pay pumps of eight and six percent in 2025 and 2026.
According to an email shared with FOX 17, the vice chair of the compensation commission called the meeting on Thursday. We asked him about it, but he wouldn't comment.
Despite the unanimous vote, this meeting didn't start smoothly. First, more members were present than when the vote originally happened in April. One member brought up concerns and wanted corporate counsel to answer. Ottawa County attorneys weren't there at the beginning of the meeting. Then there was the issue of the chair of this group not at the meeting.
Chair Larry Jackson sent me a statement:
"The commission has concluded its business under the law and today's meeting was outside the law."
Many of these commission members, who are volunteers, did have questions about those issues:
- If this meeting was legal because it's outside the 45-day window.
- How to handle their suggestion for commissioner pay raises.
- Potentially resetting the clock in which they can suggest how much elected officials could make starting next year.
An Ottawa County attorney explains that they can't vote on the commission pay raises because it didn't initially meet a group consensus.
“The third item was not an actual determination on April 11 because you didn't have a concurrence of the majority of the commission,” says Corporate Counsel Lanae Monera. “So that's why that could not be re-enacted.”
The Board of Commissioners can choose to vote on these raises. It would take a two-thirds vote to reject them.
However, despite not taking a vote, these raises do go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2025.
This group meets every two years, meaning they're expected to meet again in 2026.
Three members who approved the controversial commissioner pay raises are allowed to serve until the end of 2027.
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