Clark Co. considers wage hikes
Clark County’s executive committee on Monday discussed a resolution that, if approved, would increase the county board chairperson’s salary from $7,200 to $9,600 per year, which would amount to a $200 per month raise.
Clark County currently compensates its chairman at a considerably lower rate than other counties. According to data reviewed by the committee, which is more than three years old, the Wood County Board chairperson receives a $20,000 annual salary, plus a per diem rate of $50 for each additional meeting. The Marathon County Board chairperson receives an annual salary of $30,900.
At the same time, county clerk Christina Jensen also serves as part-time administrative coordinator for the county. It is a separate position from the clerk position and she is paid separately for it. For administrative coordinator, she receives an annual salary of $9,173 plus benefits, equaling $13,394 total.
The county is also saving on that front, because a lot of counties employ a full-time county administrator or executive, and it’s not uncommon for the salary for such a position to exceed $100,000. Chippewa, Eau Claire, and Marathon counties employ a full-time administrator, while Taylor, Jack- son, and Wood have a part-time administrative coordinator like Clark.
“We’re really getting a hell of a deal,” said supervisor Chuck Rueth.
Rueth felt it was appropriate to raise the county chairperson’s salaty to be closer to the part-time administrative coordinator’s salary. Fellow committee member Ken Gerhardt agreed.
“In my opinion, you’re paying for engagement,” Gerhardt said. “That’s what we ought to be considering. Another $200 per month is less than $10 per day. Post-Tom (Wilcox), we might get a chair that doesn’t want to be engaged as much. Granted, I don’t think he ran for the position based on the $7,200 per year. But, out of respect for his time, I think we have to compensate.”
Rueth agreed and said the county needs to look for ways to recruit more people to serve in government.
“I would like to think more people would throw their hat in the ring for chair and supervisors if we did this,” he said. “It’s hard to find people who want to do this.”
The resolution also addressed increasing the compensation for county board members. Currently, they receive $70 for attending county meetings if the meetings last four hours or less in one day. If they spend more than four hours in meetings, they receive $100. The resolution proposes changing the rate to $80 per meeting, regardless of how long the meeting lasts, with a cap of $200 per day.
If the board were to implement the resolution, based on the current committee assignments, the county would expect to spend an additional $2,000 to $2,500 per month, for an additional $24,000 to $30,000 per year.
“The reason for this (resolution) is because in the past, for example, I would go to RLC (the Clark County Rehabilitation and Living Center meeting) in the morning, and then we have community services along with that, and those two together take longer than four hours. And then I would go to county board at night. So I would get $100 for those meetings in the morning and nothing for at night,” said committee member Scott Jailing.
“But you do get your mileage,” Rueth said.
“Yes, I do get that,” Jailing replied.
“And we can keep it at $70 and not go to but I think it should be a per meeting rate. So then three meetings would be $210,” Jailing added. “Because, as it is now, you could be here all day and just get $100.”
Board member Duwayne “Butch” Trunkel said he’s not comfortable with raising the compensation that much.
“I might hurt some feelings, but I’m going to say it: I didn’t go on the county board to make money,” he said. “I think it’s our job, and somebody’s gotta do it. But I think the problem is raising that to $200.”
Trunkel said it was up to the committee on committees to make sure they were getting a variety of people to serve on different committees, so it wasn’t just the same small group of people going to a bunch of meetings.
“For personnel, executive, and finance — they shouldn’t all be on the same committees,” he said. “Because what goes through personnel is going to go through executive is going to go through finance. You’ve got 29 board members. Right now, in this county, you’ve got a — how am I going to say this without hurting feelings? You’ve got a clique is what you’ve got. You’ve got about five or six people that have got all these committees, and the other people have no say.
Whatever goes through those certain committees is going to fly. I’m not picking on anybody in particular, but that’s a problem.”
Ultimately, the executive committee decided not to act on the compensation resolution because the members felt they needed more time to look at it and they had other more pressing agenda items.
“I don’t know if this resolution will pass,” Jailing said.
“I think there’s gotta be some tinkering,” agreed Gerhardt.
Rueth decided to rescind his motion, and Jailing rescinded his second. They agreed to bring the motion back to the next executive committee meeting, which will be Oct. 30 at 9 a.m. That meeting is open to the public. If the resolution moves forward, it will be voted on by the entire county board at the annual meeting on Nov. 11.
Constituents are also reminded that the next county board meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. in the county boardroom, Room 501, at the Clark County Courthouse, 517 Court St., Neillsville. The board will look at the 2026 budget and vote on any changes before the final budget is adopted on Nov. 11.
