OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon The Chautauqua County Legislature rejected a proposal to eliminate Cost Of Living Adjustments for their own pay as well as a proposal to reduce the clerk’s pay by $10,000.

The Chautauqua County Legislature rejected a proposal to An attempt by Democratic county lawmakers to eliminate automatic pay raises for legislators as well as an attempt to reduce the salary of the county clerk have failed.

COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT FOR LEGISLATORS

In 2024, the county legislature voted to increase the base salary of individual legislators from $9,000 to $14,732, an increase of about 64%.

It was the first pay hike in about 20 years.

The increase took effect Jan. 1, following the last election.

Along with the pay increase, legislators voted to add an annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, which the clerk, executive and sheriff all have.

Legislator Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown, proposed modifying legislation which would eliminate the annual raises, which are tied to inflation.

During Wednesday’s Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, Legislator Fred Johnson, R-Westfield, said he supports the Cost Of Living Adjustment increases. “To me it’s just a matter of simple mathematics. You don’t want to have an automatic increase or an automatic decrease. I mean that in terms of real money, not nominal money,” he said.

Legislator Lisa Vanstrom, R-West Ellicott, complained that the annual pay increases are needed as costs continue to go up. “Nothing in my household has gone down no matter how tight you can pull your belt in. Certainly not bread, certainly not milk, eggs have fluctuated … coffee has gone up,” she said.

Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, noted that while Johnson is arguing that having a Cost Of Living Adjustment to one’s pay is not a real increase, the federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 since 2009.

Larson called the automatic raises without a vote “a bad idea” that should be eliminated. “Do it in public. Have the courage to vote for it and explain it to your constituents,” he said.

When the time came to vote, all Democratic legislators at the meeting – Larson, Nelson, Sandra Lewis of Fredonia, Bob Whitney of Jamestown, Bob Bankoski of Dunkirk, and Marcus Buchanan voted to eliminate the raises, as did Republican Legislator Bob Scudder of Fredonia. Legislators Vince DeJoy, D-Jamestown and Jason Merritt, R-Sheridan were absent. The remaining 10 legislators – Republicans Tom Harmon of Silver Creek, John Penhollow of Stockton, Pierre Chagnon of Ellery, Jamie Gustafson of Lakewood, Dan Pavlock of Ellington, Dalton Anthony of Frewsburg, Travis Heiser of Clymer, Marty Proctor of Mina, Vanstrom and Johnson – voted to keep the Cost Of Living Adjustments in their pay.

COUNTY CLERK SALARY

Bankoski, who is the Minority Leader of the Democratic Caucus, proposed reducing the salary of the county clerk from $89,300 to $79,300 after the next election.

Pavlock expressed concern that this cut may have been proposed after current Republican County Clerk Gregory Carlson defended the size of the county’s fund balance at a previous legislature meeting. “I’m not certain one way or the other, but I wouldn’t want it to be on someone else’s mind as a deterrent to say ‘You better not publicly say something because of the potential of a salary decrease could be on the agenda,” he said.

Larson quickly rejected that concept. “That dog won’t hunt. Tonight all the Democrats came forward and said ‘we’re willing to cut our own pay.’ Our intellectual honesty is intact,” he said.

Larson continued, “Our position is that in perhaps the poorest county of the 57 in New York, there’s nothing wrong with salaries being near the bottom. There’s no justification for county elected officials’ salaries be near the top or even in the middle of the 57 counties in New York.”

Penhollow said if the legislature really wants to save a lot of money, they need to make bigger cuts than just those of elected officials. “The only way you really save money is to cut labor. And we know that when we cut labor that cuts services. And when you cut services, what does the public think of that?” he asked.

Penhollow said if legislators are serious about making cuts, a bi-partisian commission is one possibility. “If we want to re-evaluate all the salaries for all the employees, all cost of living increases, then let’s put that on the table,” he said.

Johnson said if there is going to be a bi-partisian commission to review everything, he’s in favor. “If we’d like to cut everybody’s salaries – legislators and everybody up and down the line, we’ll save some real money and I’m all for it,” he said.

For the vote to cut the clerk’s pay by $10,000, the five Democratic legislators voted in favor. All 11 Republican legislators voted in opposition.