By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

While salaries are going up for most Fayette County and local municipal employees, the county's elected officials don't want to be left out.

County commissioners last week granted 10 percent supplemental pay hikes (up to a maximum of $5,000) for the clerk of Superior Court, coroner, probate judge, sheriff, tax commissioner, magistrates, and State Court judge and solicitor all the county's elected officials except the commissioners themselves.

Commissioners will get an automatic 4 percent cost of living increase Oct. 1. Their salaries are pegged as a percentage of Superior Court judges' salaries, and the judges are in line for the same COLA.

Commissioners also agreed to keep talking about whether some of those elected officers should receive still more. Any further pay increase would have to go to the state General Assembly as a local bill in January. County staff will compare the salaries to those in other counties nearby to help determine whether further increases are in order.

State Court Judge Fletcher Sams said he and State Court solicitor Stephen Harris both were lead to believe that hefty pay raises recently approved for all county employees applied to them as well, and they made financial commitments based on that belief.

"That has placed both of us in a delicate situation," he told the Board of Commissioners during its monthly work session last week.

Sams' salary is fixed as 85 percent of the base salary of a Superior Court judge, which is set by the state legislature. Harris' salary is 75 percent of Sams'.

The county's constitutional officers the clerk of Superior Court, probate judge, sheriff and tax commissioner will receive an automatic cost of living increase of 4 percent in January. The supplemental increase approved by the commission last week will be in addition to that.

The state court judge and solicitor also receive an automatic 4 percent COLA, effective Oct. 1.

With the raises approved last week:

u The State Court judge's salary will jump $5,000 effective this past July 1, from $75,827 to $80,827. The 4 percent COLA, which applies only to the base salary, will bump the figure up to $83,860.08 effective Oct. 1.

u State court solicitor, currently $56,870, will go to $61,870 now, then to $64,145 in October.

u Clerk of court will jump $5,000 from $61,540 to $66,540. The COLA will bump the figure up to $69,002.90.

u The coroner will get a $60 a month increase, from the current $600 a month.

u Probate judge, previously $43,824, will get an immediate $4,382 county supplement, and in January will jump to $49,959.

u The sheriff's salary will go from $72,604 to $77,604, then jump to $80,509 in January.

u The tax commissioner's salary goes from $47,845 to 52,629, then to $54,743 in January.

u The chief magistrate currently makes $12,000 to $16,000, and will see an increase to a range of $13,200 $17,600.

u The county's three magistrates currently make $8,000 to $12,000 and will make $8,800 to $13,200.

u County commissioners' salaries Oct. 1 will go up 4 percent from $14,719 to approximately $15,307. The commission chairman's part time salary will go from $18,734 to $19,483.