Tooele County officials debate their own pay raise

TOOELE — Some residents in Tooele County say they’re not happy at all about the pay raises county commissioners just approved for county employees, including themselves.

During Tuesday’s public meeting, the County Commission approved a cost-of-living adjustment raise, which county officials say was near three percent.

But given the money woes that forced the county make more than two dozen layoffs and cut the Tooele County Fair just two years ago, some residents are questioning whether the commissioners should get more pay.

One man who wanted to stay anonymous says, “I don’t think that the county commissioners are in any position or have earned any right to any kind of raises.”

He says people outside of Tooele City are treated differently than people within it. While some property taxes have stayed stagnant, this man says his have gone up significantly mostly because of increased property values.

He said, “You’re voting yourself a raise just after you got done crying ‘poverty’ for the county, saying that we need to raise our taxes. It just doesn’t sit well with people.”

However, Commissioner J. Bruce Clegg says the three commissioners are still allowed to reject the pay raise for themselves, while letting county employees to keep it. He also says the cuts that were made to the county budget affected him personally, too.

“I’ve already cut my wages over five percent through these cutbacks, and so have the other commissioners,” Clegg says.

Clegg says they haven’t been able to give a cost of living adjustment to employees for several years.

“We planned to do it because we have not given our employees any kind of a raise because of how tough times have been,” Clegg says. He added, they set more money aside specifically for that purpose this year.