Steve Burns
WMAL.com
LEESBURG – (WMAL) The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is set to hear tonight from the public on its proposed pay increases for board members.
Supervisor Matt Letourneau has proposed a 62 percent pay increase, to go into effect in 2020, when the board’s next term begins. He maintained a board member’s workload has changed significantly since the pay was last raised in 2008.
“Chair Randall and I tried to come up with something that we thought was an honest reflection of what the workload was for a board member in a post-2020 environment,” Letourneau said at a board meeting last month. “At the end of the day, when you talk about what the actual numbers are that are proposed, and you talk about that with members of the public, I think most people think it’s actually pretty reasonable.”
The increase would take the base annual salary for a board member from $41,200 to $66,826 in 2020. The board chair’s compensation would be raised from $50,000 to $81,100.
The current pay puts a constraint in who is able to run for office, supervisor Ron Meyer said.
“When you limit roles of public service to those who are independently wealthy, you get a biased, different view,” Meyer said. “We have to make sure that we’re not creating barriers to access for running for office, and we’re not deterring good people who have to make decisions for their family.”
But others, like Supervisor Geary Higgins, said board members shouldn’t be deterred from having a second job.
“These shouldn’t be full-time pay jobs. I think our founders envisioned citizen legislators,” Higgins said. “It’s much better that we be part-timers. Get out on the roads, live with the traffic, live with the schools, live with all the things that everybody else lives with that lives in the county.”
Board Chair Phyllis Randall objected, saying it would be impossible to do her job while also maintaining a full-time job elsewhere.
“You cannot have a full-time job and be the chair of the county, and attend the meetings that are required to be an effective chair,” she said. Her husband’s salary allowed her to take a pay cut in joining the board, she said.
The public hearing is set to begin at 6:00 Wednesday evening.
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