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PLANNERS GET BIG RAISE STAFFORD Board approves 67 percent increase PLANNING COMMISSION SALARIES

August 23, 2007 12:35 am

BY KAFIA HOSH

After a decade without a raise, Stafford County planning commissioners will receive a bump in pay next year.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to increase commissioners' salaries from $6,000 to $10,000 a year.

Commissioners last received a pay increase in 1998.

Their raises will go into effect Jan. 1.

Aquia District Supervisor Paul Milde, who first proposed the raise, said it will bring commissioners' salaries in line with other localities.

"They're are underpaid [compared] to some of their neighbors," Milde argued before the vote. "I think they do a lot of work."

The commission's salary increase comes after supervisors approved their own pay hikes during a June meeting.

In 2008, supervisors will receive $25,000 annually, up from the current $20,500. The chairman will make $25,900, up from $21,000.

"We raised our own salary, I think it's time to raise the Planning Commission salary," said Hartwood Supervisor Joe Brito.

Commissioners welcomed the raise.

"The money helps pay some of your expenses when you're driving around looking at some of these projects that are out there," said Ken Mitchell, the Aquia planning commissioner.

However, members said money never motivated them to join the commission.

"I think it is a civic duty, like people serving on jury duty," Mitchell said. "It's something that people do because they want to do it."

"I, for one, did not become a planning commissioner because of the salary," added commission Chairman William Cook. "I became a planning commissioner because I was asked to serve by my supervisor."

Cook said he was surprised by the raise, adding he "did not know that it was even being considered."