The county’s financial management committee voted to give finance department director Justin Cotten a $15,000 raise.
Cotten provided information on neighboring county salaries similar to Warren County and said we are most similar to Franklin County, which sets the CFO’s salary the same as the election administrator’s. He also said the state has given a percentage raise and most counties have written salary increases into financial management policy.
“I know the state gave a 6.1% raise. Social Security gave their highest ever raise of 5.9%. For convenience, most other counties wrote in the policy of financial management that it’s tied to something,” Cotten said.
Cotten’s current salary is $63,395.
“I would like to move a motion that we fix the salary of the finance director and incorporate it into our financial management policies to pay the finance director the same amount as the election administrators, who is the lowest paid civil servant in the county government. said County Executive Jimmy Haley.
Commissioner Scott Rubley was the only one to oppose the steep increase.
“The only exception I make to it is the fact that Justin agreed to come to work at a fixed price. I know times have changed and the position has changed and I’m not against a raise, but $15,000 is a bit extreme considering last year we couldn’t give county employees a raise I’m not against giving Justin a raise but I’m against giving a raise to that amount,” Rubley said.
“I agreed to come almost four years ago for a fixed salary. Times have changed and so has the workload. The county’s budget has increased by nearly $10 million and that doesn’t include all of the ARP money that we manage,” Cotten said.
The motion passed at the Financial Management Committee with four votes in favor and Rubley being the only vote against.
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