Prince William board not getting a pay raise this time

The Prince William board of supervisors will not be getting a raise.

Following a board meeting on June 15, and a contentious closed session that led to two board members walking out of the room, the board ultimately tabled the issue.

Ideas for raises for the board did not come from the supervisors themselves, but was a county staff recommendation to stay consistent with the board’s informally adopted compensation resolution, that aims to keep their pay comparable to other localities, according to a staff report.

Currently, Chairman At-Large Corey Stewart is paid $49, 452 a year, and the other supervisors are paid $43,422 a year.

Timeline to approve raises

The board has a narrow window to approve of any changes in salaries, according to section 15.2-1414.2 of the Virginia Code, where action has to be approved by July 1 on an election year.

Here’s a look at that section of the code:

The annual compensation to be allowed each member of the board of supervisors of a county shall be determined by the board of supervisors of such county but such compensation shall not be more than a maximum determined in the following manner. Prior to July 1 of the year in which members of the board of supervisors are to be elected or, if the board is elected for staggered terms, of any year in which at least forty percent of the members of the board are to be elected, the current board, by a recorded vote of a majority present, shall set a maximum annual compensation which will become effective as of January 1 of the next year.

While the board of supervisors could take action on raises during a non-election year, they could not be approved and active until January 1 when a new board takes office, after an election year.

“[The code] does not state that a Board can only take action during an election year. Salary changes cannot take effect until January 1 of the year in which the new Board takes office,” said county spokesman Jason Grant.

And now that the July 1 window has passed, the county board of supervisors will not be able to approve and implement any changes to supervisor pay for another 4 years.

Looking at other localities

Following a board policy directive to the County Executive in April 2000, the county is meant to look at surrounding localities and see what their salaries are, when considering whether or not the raise the county’s supervisor pay.

This can be a difficult task, considering that each locality has a different population, taxes, infrastructure and responsibilities.

“The [directive] specifically state Fairfax County, City of Alexandria, Arlington County and Loudoun County as their ‘counterparts.’ So, I believe those would be the comparable jurisdictions. Those are the jurisdictions we compare to because Arlington, Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William are the four Northern Virginia counties. Alexandria, though a city, is comparable due to its size and service needs,” stated Grant.

How other localities look at supervisor pay

According to Stafford County and Fairfax County, looking at comparable localities to compare and adjust supervisor pay is a common practice, and often raises are not given every 4 years.

“Usually we don’t adjust salaries every 4 years, actually it’s more like every 8 years…we take a look at what the compensation is for other counties and jurisdictions of similar size, similar responsibilities, although everything is not always equal. I’ve been on the board for a long time…I was originally elected in 1987, and I have been a supervisor a number of times we have adjusted compensation. And people always say, ‘this is the worst time, we shouldn’t be doing this now’ and if that were the case, we would probably never do it. And we still would be making $18,000 a year. We are aware and sensitive to what is going on, as far as the economy goes…trying to adjust compensation so that we can keep and attract good board members without taking an action that would be considered as irresponsible is what we aim for,” said Fairfax Chairwoman Sharon Bulova,

Fairfax just recently approved a pay increase for the incoming board. According to Bulova, supervisors will go from $75,000 to $95,000 per year, and the Chairman would go from $75,000 to $100,000 per year.

While Stafford does not have an adopted policy on pay raises like Prince William does, they took look at other localities and have adopted pay raises in recent years.

“The pay for our Board of Supervisors has been the same since 2001 except for 2008, when they had a raise that they repealed the next year,” said Stafford spokeswoman Shannon Howell.

If Prince William’s board of supervisors had taken on the staff recommendation for pay raises, the Chairman would have received a salary of $58,032 and a district supervisor would have received $53,795 – a 24% and 17% raise, respectively – according to Grant.