Chautauqua County has taken the next step to consider giving elected officials pay raises.

During a meeting of the legislature’s Administrative Services Committee, members appointed Steve Abdella of Jamestown, Frank “Jay” Gould of Sinclairville, Vince Horrigan of Bemus Point, Frank Beach of Dunkirk, Daniel Heitzenrater of Frewsburg, Greg Krauza of Fredonia, and Sharon Smead of Mayville to the seven-member bi-partisan County Salary Commission.

The full legislature needs to give final approval at its meeting on Wednesdsay.

According to the Board of Elections, Abdella, Gould, Horrigan and Heitzenrater are registered Republicans and Beach, Krauza and Mead are registered Democrats. Republican Election Commissioner Brian Abram noted that political affiliations are considered public record.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, who is the sponsor of the resolution, feels the makeup of the Commission is balanced. “The commission is comprised of 4 Republican and 3 Democrat members, which is as close to totally bipartisan as can be with 7 members and mirrors the registered voters in the County being slightly more Republican,” he said in an email to the OBSERVER/Post-Journal.

In March, the county legislature agreed to establish a Salary Review Commission. The last time a commission was formed was about 10 years ago.

Officials said in March that some elected county positions haven’t seen a raise since 2001 and were lower than other counties.

The resolution states that the Salary Commission is requested to review and make recommendations to the county legislature by Oct. 1 regarding the entire compensation package for elected officials, including salary, insurance and mileage expense reimbursements.

Any recommendations of salary increases by the Commission would need to be authorized by the county legislature.