After years of disputes, Scott County has come up with a formula to set the pay of elected officials.
But the formula is generous enough that it's unlikely to be the last word on the subject -- especially once elections loom.
The idea is to match the average salaries of officials in six other mostly suburban counties. But most are quite a bit bigger than Scott is, which would generally translate to higher salaries.
The county board decided last week to approve 3 percent increases, en route to matching the average.
That results in salaries of $131,840 for the county attorney, $121,408 for the sheriff and $48,904 for commissioners.
The comparison counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Olmsted, St. Louis and Washington have an average population of 236,000. Scott's is just under 132,000.
Conversely, commissioner Jon Ulrich said, the board has been "very conservative on commissioner salaries," keeping them flat several times in the past decade.
