Prince William Supervisors explore pay raises, equalizing their office budgets

WOODBRIDGE — Supervisor John Jenkins has asked for a study by the Prince William County Executive’s Office to look at the Board of County Supervisors members’ pay, which has been unchanged for 10 years. Jenkins would like to raise salaries to match those of the elected Supervisors in neighboring Fairfax County.

According to a recent email from the county executive’s office, the average compensation for Fairfax, Stafford, and Loudoun supervisors is $52, 233 per year, with the chairman’s salary averaging $57,167.

“If you compare Prince William’s salary to Fairfax, their board members get $95,000 and the chairman gets $100,000,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins added that those numbers are “inconsistent” in comparative salaries pointed out in two studies the county executive did on a prior request from a board member.

“I think if you have time to take a look at the contents of the email message that the county executive sent out to the board members, you’ll see that we are way out of line with the other districts,” he said.

Prince William County Board members currently each receive and annual salary of $43, 422. The chairman receives $49, 452.

The BOCS is not permitted to raise salaries for current members. They can only raise salaries for the next BOCS. Since all supervisors’ seats are up for reelection in 2019, the BOCS would have to take action this year. The proposed new salaries would take effect Jan. 1, 2020.

Fairfax, Stafford and Loudoun proposed an average salary of $60, 775 for members, $67, 533 for the chair.

In a separate issue on the same day, Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson countered to say that some supervisors’ offices have a larger budget and that there should be equalization among the supervisor’s offices. Hers is low, while others are higher. Anderson asked for a review of the budgets of the individual supervisor’s offices.

“There is actually an $80,000 difference between the Occoquan District and the district that has the highest budget.” Anderson would like the county executive “to propose equalization of the magisterial district office budgets in the fiscal year 2019 budget.”

The current budget for each office was reflected in the recent email from the county executive’s office:

• Brentsville $400,158
• Coles $389,950
• Gainesville $415,526
• Neabsco $428,108
• Occoquan $336,421
• Potomac $363,518
• Woodbridge $404, 687
• Chairman At-large $419,385

“Equal funding for each office would be the most fair and transparent to our tax payers,” she said.

Potomac District Supervisor Caddigan noted she also looked at the numbers.

“I only have two people in my office. Some have more, so that makes the difference,” she said.  “I only have two aids. Some have three or four, so we need to look at that as well.”

Gainesville Supervisor Pete Candland said he was supportive of looking at the issue.

“I think we’ve all kind of wondered why, but supervisor Caddigan makes a great point that she has been able to definitely do more with less. I never quite understood what the formula was, but I think tightening it up…now there might still be some difference…but tightening up that gap between the highest and lowest is probably a good idea. I would be supportive of that directive,” Candland said. “This past year, we did have a little bit left over in the Gainesville District, so if it does come down to it, I would absolutely be willing to shift some of the budget over to the Occoquan district moving forward.”

“We are not looking at salaries, we are looking at revenue sharing funds, so to speak, and that issue should be separate and apart from the salary issue. So I would recommend Ms. Anderson’s proposal be looked at as an operation and maintenance type fund,” Jenkins said, regarding the second issue.

“I can tell you over the years, I have saved a lot of my revenue sharing funds, and that is why my account balance is not as low as some others, and that is because I have saved those funds. And an understanding the board members have with the county execs is that we will manage our own revenue sharing funds, and if we want to, we can fix a sewer pipe or state road or other public access with this kind of funding.”

The county executive’s office has agreed to look at the salaries, but noted there will be an overlap of the two issues.