HERMANN — Saying the state law it operates under is clear, Gasconade County Salary Commission Chairman Mary E. Weston Thursday morning said the panel had no choice but to reject requests for salary boosts from the county coroner and the public administrator.

Weston said there are many state statutes regarding the pay of county government officeholders, but the law that the Salary Commission — which meets in every odd-numbered year — operates under is clear in that it can approve raises only for the offices that will be filled at the next year’s General Elections. It does not allow increases for officeholders in the middle of a current four-year term.

That’s the case of County Coroner Jeff Arnold and Public Administrator Kelley Brehe-Thomas., both of whom during last month’s meeting of the Salary Commission cited recent state legislation that authorized increased salaries.

The panel, comprised of most elected county government officeholders, met Nov. 17 to consider salary increases for the offices that will be filled in the 2026 General Elections. However, as reported by County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, Gasconade County officeholders have reached their pay ceilings, based on the county’s total assessed valuation of property — the key factor in deciding officials’ salaries. That will be the case unless and until the Missouri General Assembly changes the level of total assessed valuation that triggers higher pay.

The only other thing the Salary Commission can do for those officeholders is recommend a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Any COLA that is granted for all officeholders and all other county government employees is included in the county’s next operating budget approved by the County Commission. The budget for 2026 will be crafted during December and refined during January. A new operating budget for 3rd-Class counties needs to be in place by the end of January.

During the November Salary Commission meeting, Arnold noted that coroners in adjoining counties have been granted pay raises and he argued that his office also should receive a pay boost. But Weston, who spent the time since the Nov. 17 meeting researching the statutes, said she could find no basis for granting the requests of Arnold and Brehe-Thomas.

“I’ve studied this; I’ve looked at it several times,” she said at the outset of last Thursday’s meeting. She added that the section of law governing the Salary Commission “is very specific” about how it expend funds for salaries in that it is limited to setting pay for the terms that begin at the next General Election.

As for the coroner, public administrator and any other officeholder in the middle of a term, the panel must wait until 2027 to consider a salary adjustment — if such an increase is allowed by new state legislation.

“Until then, we have no authority to do anything regarding those salaries,” Weston said. “We are not allowed to raise your salary mid-term,” she added.

Indeed, county officials such as Lietzow are well aware of that, citing a lawsuit several years ago regarding the salary adjustments granted to associate commissioners. That increase had to be returned to the county treasury by those associate commissioners after it was challenged in court.

“We are that law,” Lietzow said, explaining that the raise was granted when the associate commissioners’ terms went from two years to four years. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled it was a mid-term increase and not allowed by state law.

Weston’s explanation about the prohibition prompted Arnold to ask who Montgomery County and Crawford County are able to grant a salary increase to their coroners while Gasconade County can’t.

“You’ll have to ask them,” Weston, the county prosecuting attorney, replied. “I don’t know,” she said, adding, “I’m not going to try and bootstrap us into something I don’t think is legal.”

Lietzow explained that if those counties have acted counter to state law, it will show up during the counties’ regular review by the Missouri State Auditor’s Office.

“If those counties did it, when the state auditors come they’ll go straight to that (Missouri) Supreme Court ruling and they’ll have to pay it back,” she said.