The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will be getting a salary increase starting January 2024, its first raise in eight years. They voted 8-2 to raise the pay to $123,283 for supervisors and $138,283 for the chairman. The vote came after a public hearing where speakers shared several stories about how they have struggled due to the rising cost of living and inflation. Furthermore, the hiring challenges that have resulted in many vacancies and impacted county services to its citizens.
Many people stated that they were not against the board getting a raise, but the amounts proposed were “insulting” considering that they only proposed 2% raises for workers. Here are some of the testimonials the news story highlights.
Carolyn Bivens, Citizen
“Too many are just getting by, and others are on the verge of falling into crisis,” Carolyn Bivens said. “Respectfully, in my opinion, the case has not been made for making the Board of Supervisors positions full time. More importantly, a 35 to 45% increase would be viewed as tone-deaf in this environment.”
Dave Lyons, FWC Exec Director
According to Dave Lyons, Fairfax Workers Coalition Executive Director, other jurisdictions in Virginia are advertising MRA increases of up to 6-9%. He acknowledged that Virginia law requires a different process for adjusting the compensation of elected officials than for other public employees, but the proposal created a perception “that you care more about yourselves than you do your workers.”
Furthermore, Dave Lyons noted that we do not have a shortage of politicians. “What we do have is a shortage of human service workers. We have a shortage of cops. We have a shortage in solid waste collection that is causing the county to contract out good jobs,” he said. “And in the case of all these jobs, citizens will suffer as the vacancies grow, as the quality drops and as real experience keeps going out the door. That’s why this proposal struck people as wrong.”
Pat Herrity, Springfield District Supervisor
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said board raises would be “outrageous” when the county is also dealing with employee retention and recruitment challenges as well as surging taxes and inflation. “We need to prioritize our spending and protect critical county services, not fund board raises,” Herrity said.
Public hearings on the budget for FY2024 will be held April 11-13 and a final plan will be adopted on May 9. Read the rest of the news story here.