Cayuga County Legislature Chairperson Aileen McNabb-Coleman has been doing an admirable job leading the county under difficult circumstances, but we disagree with a plan by the Legislature to more than double the salary for her position.Â
A public hearing and likely vote on changing McNabb-Coleman's annual pay from $30,000 to $65,000 is set for Tuesday, Aug. 25. The raise is not meant to be a permanent change, but designed specifically to better compensate McNabb-Coleman for the increased "demands on the position beyond those previously considered or anticipated" because of the coronavirus pandemic.
McNabb-Coleman said that she's been putting in 50 to 60 hours a week at what is meant to be a part-time job, and worked much more than that when the pandemic was at its peak in the spring. But the pay for county chairperson already reflects the fact that the position requires more work than that of other elected officials, with some putting in longer hours than others.
People are also reading…
In addition to extra responsibilities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature chairperson has also been given more to do because the county has been without a full-time administrator for more than a year. And it's been suggested that giving McNabb-Coleman a raise at this time won't have a fiscal impact because the county has money in its budget related to the administrator position.
It's almost as though the Legislature is looking for a way to get a full-time position on the payroll without doing the work of hiring someone to take on the job. Legislators are fond of justifying expenditures by pointing to unused money in the budget. In this case, we believe the money would be better spent getting to work on a search for a professional manager, which was its purpose when put into the budget.
To be clear, we're not questioning the job performance of McNabb-Coleman, who said that she's "honored and thrilled" to hold the chair position and will continue to do the same job with or without additional compensation.
Our concern is that it sets the wrong tone to give the boss — especially a high-profile elected official — a big raise when other county workers have also taken on new responsibilities and increased workloads. Most importantly, we don't believe the county should be spending extra taxpayer dollars in the middle of an economic crisis when a lot of residents are hurting.
Ë®¹ûÅÉAV editorial board includes publisher Michelle Bowers, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd.
