Jackson County, Ore.- As a group is calling for a change in Jackson County government, county commissioners met this morning to hear more about the plan.
A group called ‘Jackson County for All of Us’ has been spending months collecting signatures for several new ballot measures.
One of them focuses on adding two new county commissioners.
The county claims the group has not properly informed residents about the *actual cost of adding new commissioners.
The current commissioners claim the county’s ‘charter law’ created back in 2008, pays them around the same as what they making now when you factor in inflation./
County administrator Danny Jordan says adding two commissioners will still cost the county more even if commissioners’ salaries would be reduced like ‘Jackson County for all of us’ is proposing.
“You can take some things out of there, but you can’t take it all out, and there will be a cost increase. It will not be cost-neutral even if everything is passed as proposed with a salary cap. So that 212 thousand without a salary cap becomes between 500 thousand at the entry-level and seven hundred thousand at the top level because we’ll have two new commissioners that go into the existing pay plan and we still need do need an additional staff whether there is a salary cap or not,” voiced administrator for Jackson County, Danny Jordan.
Jordan says the county has won the government finance officer association’s ‘triple crown’ eight years in a row for good financial management.
‘Jackson County for All of Us’ says it’s already gotten enough signatures to qualify for the ballot but hasn’t turned them in yet.
In addition to adding two more commissioners, it wants the Jackson County commissioner positions to be non-partisan.
It is still unclear whether the measures will be on the May or November ballot If they get enough valid signatures.
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