A citizen and a supervisor exchanged a brief set of words Monday at the Marion County Board of Supervisors meeting over a potential raise for supervisors.
Betty Oglesbee asked when the raises for the supervisors were coming up for discussion, and Board Attorney Drew Foxworth told her it can be discussed in January.
Oglesbee referenced a report published in the newspaper that showed the average per capita income in Marion County was at just below $35,000 in 2018.
“I know y’all think you work full-time, but if y’all going to earn $40,000 working part-time, it is not fair to the average citizen, the raise. That is my opinion,” she said.
As Oglesbee was leaving, Supervisor Calvin Newsom addressed her comment.
“They tell you it’s part-time; we may meet here on a part-time basis, but we work every day. Not one day, every day,” Newsom said. “So it’s one thing on paper. We are out on the road every single day, and then at night when people are in their houses sleeping we are out there working. We don’t stop. Rain, sleet or snow we got to go.”
“You are still making more than the average person working in this county,” Oglesbee replied.
“The average person doesn’t do what we do,” Newsom countered.
Mississippi Senate Bill 2827, which Gov. Phil Bryant signed earlier this year, provides supervisors statewide with a 3 percent raise beginning Jan. 1, 2020, but the board in each county must vote to accept it. Pay for supervisors is determined by the appraised value of the county's property, and in Marion County the current salary of $40,400 would go to $41,612 (an increase of $1,212).
The Mississippi Association of Supervisors had lobbied for a $10,000 raise for all county supervisors, arguing that they had not received a pay hike since 2003. However, the Legislature decided to set the increase at 3 percent.
A vote to increase the supervisors' salaries cannot happen until after Jan. 1 because of the way Senate Bill 2827 was worded. Some other parts of the bill took effect on July 1, including 5 percent raises for chancery clerks, circuit clerks and tax assessors statewide. Coroners and constables also received pay increases.
Also this week, Carol Durham, curator of the Marion County Historical Society Museum and Archives, provided an update on the work at the museum. Durham has been the curator for six months, and she said she is still going through all the boxes there. She has been able to add some artifacts to the Civil War display, the rodeo display and the sports exhibit. She also said when the Wall that Heals was in town, the museum probably had about 200 visitors.
In addition the board went into executive session for a personnel matter on Monday and also on Tuesday regarding economic development.
