A county-appointed citizen’s committee has recommended salaries for elected officials in Montgomery County remain at current levels for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Members of the committee were appointed by each member of commissioners court in May to determine whether elected officials should receive pay increases in addition to cost of living adjustments given to employees. Committee member Diane Bass presented the committee's findings to commissioners court Aug. 9 and said the group studied similar counties to see what other elected officials across the state are being paid. Counties studied included Brazoria, Collin, Denton, Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson.

“Once we calculated where Montgomery County salaries fall relative to those counties, we contacted each of our elected officials and invited them to submit a statement regarding why a higher-than-average salary might be justified,” Bass said. “That is, are they performing duties that their counterparts in other counties don’t perform?”

Of the counties studied, Montgomery County has the highest percentage of residents—81 percent—living in unincorporated areas, Bass said.

“We believe that the large percentage of unincorporated square miles and the percentage of residents living in unincorporated areas severely increases the demand for services placed on county resources, especially for law enforcement personnel, our county judge and commissioners,” she said. “We would agree it is conceivable those individuals’ jobs are more demanding than those of their counterparts in the comparison counties.”

However, the committee’s findings revealed that Montgomery County elected officials are paid 11 percent up to 52 percent more than average salaries paid by other counties surveyed, Bass said.

One explanation for higher salaries may be cost of living adjustments, which Montgomery County has awarded for several years, Bass said. A cost of living adjustment is defined as a periodic increase in wages or salaries to compensate for loss in purchasing power due to inflation.

Each member of commissioners court appointed one individual to the five-person committee in May. In addition to Bass, committee members included Chris Hines, Thomas Grayson and Jimmy Beathard. Mitch Hausman was also appointed, but he was not included in the final report.

“He and I talked on the phone, and we emailed back and forth,” Bass said. “I thought it would work out with him, but in the end he did not agree with our recommendation, and he asked his name be removed from the report.”

County Judge Craig Doyal said he believes commissioners court should take into account the report for the next budget cycle and added no elected officials requested a raise for the upcoming fiscal year.

“I think this information will be critical [for] us moving forward as we look into elected official’s salaries,” Doyal said.