What is a Sedgwick County commissioner worth?
On Jan. 13, Pete Meitzner abandoned his City Council office and crossed the street to take office as a Sedgwick County Commissioner. It is a short walk across Central Avenue, but a very big step financially for Meitzner.
His salary as a City Council member was about $40,000. Across the street, he will make $98,304 a year as a Sedgwick County Commissioner, more than doubling his annual salary on the City Council.
Meitzner is joined on the County Commission by newcomer Lacey Cruse, a fresh face on the local government scene. Although Cruse has zero experience in local government, she may well be the most valuable commissioner to take office that day. She is unpolluted by the past shenanigans of the current commission. She has no close ties to any of the other commissioners, and that sets her apart from her fellow commissioners. But does she merit a salary of nearly $100,000 a year?
This isn’t an individual criticism of either Meitzner or Cruse. They deserve the same respect and recognition of any elected public official. But their election provides a timely opportunity for a discussion of compensation of our local elected officials.
Why are county commissioners paid so much more than City Council members? Under their best behavior, county commissioners don’t appear to provide twice the value of a Wichita City Council member (or Derby, Andover, Maize or Valley Center, for that matter).
The bulk of public safety, transportation and water utilities are controlled by city officials, not the county. The county runs the jail (although the elected sheriff has most of that responsibility), the zoo and local public health programs. They have oversight over the entire county, but they also have a well-paid county manager who does most of the administrative heavy lifting.
Want to hear something more absurd? Consider Carolyn McGinn, a former county commissioner who decided her talents were better spent as a state senator. As chair of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, McGinn has a direct, hands-on impact on a state budget that exceeds $7 billion. Compare that to the 2019 Sedgwick County budget of about $440 million, or the city of Wichita budget of about $600 million.
Despite overseeing the largest budget of the three levels of government, McGinn gets a measly base salary of about $20,000, plus about $10,000 in additional pay for her leadership responsibilities. The same is true of Wichita state Sen. Susan Wagle, who wields immense power as president of the state Senate.
The math doesn’t add up. Somewhere, somehow, it was decided that Sedgwick County commissioners should be paid almost $100,000 a year. It makes no sense, especially when you look at what we got for our money that past couple of years. For that half-million-plus dollars in annual salary and benefits for five county commissioners, we got a toxic workplace environment, shameless political acrimony, a troubled workforce and a contentious relationship between the commission and county manager.
As taxpayers, we are the employer, and elected officials are our employees. As such, we should be entitled to a timely salary review and the appropriate adjustments.
If the County Commission isn’t overpaid at $100,000 a year, then it stands to reason that Wichita City Council members are grossly underpaid, and our state legislators even more so.
How do we fix it? The solution isn’t likely to come from the County Commission, who didn’t shy from taking a 2.5 percent salary increase this year, further widening the gap. On the other end, City Council members and state legislators aren’t likely to commit political suicide by raising their salaries to the lofty heights of the Sedgwick County Commission.
Maybe all you can do is keep asking this question every time you run into your county commissioner. “What did you do today that makes you twice as valuable as a Wichita City Council member?“
Dale Goter is a former journalist with KPTS and lobbyist for the city of Wichita.
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 4:55 AM.