By Uriah A. Kiser

Published: April 17, 2008

STAFFORD — The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted yes Tuesday to keep a pay increase implemented last December, raising supervisors’ salaries from $20,000 to $25,000 per year. The board chairman’s salary rose from $21,000 to $25,900. The board did however vote to suspend a second pay increase, which would have raised salaries again by 2.5 percent that was scheduled to take effect in 2009.

“We are charting new ground in the tax rate…we are telling people to work harder and we are not offering more compensation for it,” said Mark Dudenhefer, R-Garrisonville. “I think that this is an issue that the supervisors should have shown leadership on.”

Other board members said that they did not feel comfortable mandating all of the supervisors be required to roll back their salary increase, and noted they deserve the money because of the long hours worked.

How They Voted:

Brito YES
Crisp YES
Dudenhefer NO
Milde NO
Schwartz YES
Sterling NO
Woodson YES

“I certainly feel the county’s budget is tight; it’s nice if individually we can give some of the money back,” said Supervisor Harry Crisp II, D-George Washington. “I do consulting work as a second source of income. If you add up all of the time required for the supervisor duties, I am taking a steep pay cut from the money I would normally have from my consulting work.”