By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – The part-time assistant county attorney for Linn County has agreed to become a full-time staff member, County Attorney Burton Harding told the county commission on Monday, April 24.
Harding told the commissioners that he had not been able to find another part-time attorney to work in the county attorney’s office but had come up with another solution.
On March 6, Harding, who had resigned his position and then rescinded his resignation after there were no applicants to take his place, had asked the commissioners to approve up to $50,000 for a part-time attorney and to bump up his salary to $95,000. Commissioners asked Harding to bring them a budget with these new amounts but as of April 24, he had not submitted a revised budget.
But on Monday, Harding said that Assistant Linn County Attorney Justin Meeks, who works part-time for Linn County and part-time for Bourbon County, has decided to resign his position at Bourbon County.
Harding said that under an agreement with Meeks, he would become a full-time employee of Linn County, eliminating the need for another part-time assistant. The move to full-time would bump up Meeks’ salary by an additional $42,000.
Harding said that he would like to add $7,000 to his own salary.
Harding pointed out that this would raise the total salaries for the Linn County attorney’s office from $270,000 to $320,000. This amount would still be less than the payroll of neighboring county attorney offices.
Miami County’s salary budget for the county attorney’s office is $470,000 and Bourbon County’s is $378,000, Harding said.
Harding said he did not see any change in the payroll budget for next year. He also told the commissioners that he appreciated the $1 hour increase in pay recently given to all county employees.
Linn County Counselor Gary Thompson said that if the commissioners were in agreement with this amount that they will have a new contract drawn up covering the change next week.