Local

County supervisor hopes higher pay will be incentive to run

Published

4 years ago

October 30, 2019

One long-time La Crosse County supervisor hopes a proposed pay raise will encourage more people to run for county board.

Andrea Richmond sits on both the county board and the La Crosse city council.

Richmond tells WIZM’s La Crosse Talk that increasing the pay for county board members to $700 a month might help make people more willing to spend time volunteering to work for local government.

The monthly fee for La Crosse county supervisors is now $417, but it’s higher for the board chairperson and vice-chairs.

The pay raise plan isn’t very popular, according to WIZM surveys.

Many citizens are against paying board or council members anything, much less increasing county board pay to $700.

Richmond says one incentive to get more candidates might be to have fewer early morning committee meetings.

The La Crosse County committee which endorsed a county board pay hike last week has its regular monthly meetings at 7:30 a.m.

If the suggested pay raise is passed by the full board, it would take effect after the next county election in April.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.