Joe Pyrah

Complete with defenses for their actions, county commissioners gave themselves and six other elected officials a pay raise on Tuesday morning.

"There is never a good time for elected officials to raise their salaries, period," said Commissioner Gary Anderson shortly before voting to raise the salaries.

The lone opposition in the 2-1 vote was Commissioner Steve White, who wanted to see an increase but a smaller one.

"I was opposed to the entire raise, but I told them I would meet them in the middle someplace," White said.

Though the study shows the county is below average, the commissioners' salary has averaged a $5,000 increase per year since 2001, when they were making $67,600. Other elected officials' salaries have gone up similarly.

The commissioners, county attorney, assessor, treasurer, recorder and clerk/auditor all said Tuesday morning that as the county population has exploded, their jobs have gotten more involved.

"We have the best set of elected officials in the history of this county," Anderson said.

County Attorney Jeff Buhman said Tuesday that the move was a good one for several reasons. First is that the commission timed the raises with other county employees. There had been bad blood in the past, with employees concerned that elected officials' salaries were being raised out of the eye of the public. Second, the study takes into account multiple public entities for comparison, which it failed to do in the past.

White, who has consistently voted against pay raises, nevertheless said executives at companies with as many employees and as large a budget as the county's would be making much more than the commissioners. But no one likes when federal politicians give themselves a pay raise, he said, and local government is no different. "I'm sure the average citizen feels the same way about the commission or everyone else."