Pay Scale
| A friend of mine brought it to
my attention that with all the interest in the upcoming county election,
it might be a good time to do a story on the pay of the elected
positions that will be on the ballot. Not that anybody would be running
for office just for the money but voters might find it interesting to
know how much their elected officials make. Most elected county official's minimum pay is set by the state. However the state provides no funding for any of those salaries. The pay is based on the county's population the greater the population the higher the pay. Loudon County is a class 4 county. Population 35,000-49,999. The state sets the minimum salary but county commission can pay a higher salary than the minimum. As you will notice, the state has set the minimum salaries for our elected officials pretty high, in my opinion, based on the county's average per capita income of $32,000.00. The state minimum pay for: County Mayor - $73,866.00 Currently both the Loudon County Mayor and Sheriff make more than the state require minimum due to a bit of a fluke from many years ago. State law requires that if the county jail is designated as a workhouse, the sheriff should be paid an additional 5% above the minimum. A long time ago during a previous administration the county took the first steps to make the Loudon County jail a qualified workhouse. Unfortunately, the necessary requirements were never completed to qualify the jail as a workhouse. But the sheriff's pay was increased by the 5% in anticipation of the jail qualifying as a workhouse and the pay has continued to carry the additional 5% for all these many years. Now, the state law also
requires that the county mayor’s compensation shall be at least 5%
higher than the salary paid to The state minimum pay for: Highway Superintendent - $70,350.00 Current Highway Superintendent, Sean Giles, is paid $75,265.00. As stated above, commission does have the authority to pay more than the state minimum. The state minimum pay for: Current Trustee Estelle Herron, Circuit/General Court Clerk Lisa Niles, County Court Clerk Riley Wampler, Register Of Deeds Tracie Littleton and Property Assessor Chuck Jenkins. The minimum pay for what is know as fee officers as listed above is $63,954.00. All receive the minimum pay. County commissioner's pay is set by commissioners them selves. The state does set a minimum pay of $30 for each day's attendance at meetings of the county commission. In 2007 Loudon County commissioner adopted a resolution to set their annual compensation at 10% of the mayor's salary. Each commissioners is paid $7,902.00 per year or $658.50 per month regardless of the number of meetings attended. School board members are paid $300.00 per month or $3,600.00 per year. School board members compensation is also set by county commission.
Click here for complete details of county salaries from the
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1/25/10