Forsyth County commissioners nix raise idea

Forsyth County commissioners voted 3-0-1 recently to deny a raise proposal for the elected group, after having initially set the process in motion earlier this summer.

The plan would have raised base salaries for commissioners to $48,000 effective Jan 1, 2019, with the commission chair earning $49,500. It would have also tied future raises to future cost of living and merit increases granted to county employees. Currently, members of the commission earn $34,900 as a base salary with the commission chair drawing slightly more at $36,747.

District 4 commissioner Cindy Jones Mills had objected to the pay raise plan and suggested during the meeting that coercion had been applied to move members toward approving the proposal. District 5 commissioner Laura Semanson expressed a desire to have a study done on the pay raise plan by early next year.