The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners voted to increase their yearly salaries by 60% and their per diems by over 70% at their regular session on Tuesday, starting in 2025. This pay increase — their first in two-and-ahalf decades — is intended in part to attract younger people to some soon-tobe- vacant seats on the county board. The salary for county commissioners increased from $5,000 to $8,000 and the salary of the county board chairman increased from $7,700 to $10,000 starting next year. Their per diem pay — fixed payments for attending meetings and conferences — also increased from $40 to $70 for a half day of work and from $70 to $120 for a full day, also starting in 2025.
County Commissioner Jim O’Rourke introduced the agenda item at last week’s meeting. O’Rourke stressed that since he is not running for reelection as District No. 2 commissioner this year, he will not be around to benefit from the salary increases. Nonetheless, he said that “we have some outstanding people who sit on this board” who do not get paid proportionally to their efforts.
The main cause for the discrepancy between work and pay cited by O’Rourke was the fact that the commissioner salaries were last adjusted in 1999, so their pay hasn’t been raised to match the last 25 years of inflation.
