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DAYTON–Commissioner Mike Talbott, District No. 2, steps down as Columbia County Board of Commissioners Chair after Commissioner Charles Amerein, District No. 3, was selected to fill that position for 2020.
The position does not impose more power than any other commissioner, it is only to preside over the meetings.
“Being Chair is a little different, but the Chair does not have any more power than other Commissioners,” said Talbott. “We just run the meetings and try to be fair.”
“The Chair gets to sign more stuff,” said Amerein.
In addition, the CCBOC approved Commissioner salaries for the year 2023. Currently their salary is approximately $35,000. The salary amount selected was based on an incremental increase from previous salary; and closely based on Commissioner pay for Asotin County. It is important to note that none of the three Commissioners have a term that goes beyond December 31, 2022 and that the Commissioners are prohibited from setting a salary for a time period included in their current term.
“When I run for re-election in 2022, if you don’t like the salary, I voted for myself for 2023, you can vote me out,” said Amerein.
For the year 2023, each Commissioner will receive a salary of $40,000, which is an increase of $3,158 from the Commissioners’ 2022 salary, which was set at a previous time. One public comment from Columbia County Assessor Chris Mills, wondered why Asotin was chosen for salary comparison as opposed to Garfield County, where the Commissioners are paid less. She added that there are a lot of county employees work 40 hours and make less than $40,000; and the Commissioners are part-time, so how is $40,000 justified? Asotin County has a larger tax base, how can Columbia be compared to Asotin? Although the Commissioners are in office generally once per week, the Commissioners are also available to the public outside those hours. Plus, they do a lot of work on legislation that affects the County.
