The 49-percenters of Hennepin County

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Members of the Hennepin County Board made the right call Tuesday when they voted 6-0 to walk back a plan to give themselves a 49% pay raise. We have occasion to offer that compliment only because four members of the board earlier made such an absurdly wrong call by bringing the proposal by Board Chair Irene Fernando to a final vote.

Credit, too, to the county’s taxpayers for voicing their thoughts on the matter. “I now realize that my support of a pay increase goes against many of your values as constituents,” wrote Board Member Angela Conley. Credit then also for responsive government — though perhaps the opposition could have been anticipated?

It all spares us from trying to make this joke sound funny:

Why won’t Hennepin County commissioners run for Congress?

Because they’d have to take a pay cut.

Yes, the proposal to raise commissioners’ annual salary to $182,141, from $122,225, would’ve bettered the congressional salary of $174,000, among other leapfrog maneuvers. And sitting in Congress, unlike sitting on the County Board, generally requires the expense of maintaining two living arrangements — one in Washington, one back home. The board members merely have to pay for a commute to that big H-shaped building downtown.

Even the current salary is a pretty penny compared with the $92,500 that is the median household income in Hennepin County, which has its share of high earners.

If this were the end of things, we’d feel better. Fernando said she won’t offer an alternative plan, but other commissioners could. And it seemed like a majority of the board members really wanted that raise.

We’re not reflexively against pay increases for public servants. We’ve written recently about how difficult it must be to choose such work amid the today’s toxic atmosphere (”‘Why would I ever sign up for that?’” June 21) — though as recently as April there were six candidates for an open Hennepin board seat.

We also know that public servants must forgo better-paying jobs in the private sector. But only the highest private-sector job titles in Minnesota pay salaries that rival the one originally proposed for the County Board. Anyway, public service should be about serving the public, not about maximizing one’s earnings from the public.

Finally, in the past we’ve supported raises that have been too long deferred. But, always and everywhere, there are best practices to follow:

• Don’t raise pay for yourself. Raise it for your successor. The proposed Hennepin raise would have landed in 2025. Only one of the four board members who initially supported the raise will be on the ballot before then.

• When settling on a percentage increase, don’t even think about a number that falls more than 10 places into the Fibonacci sequence.

For the record, it was Board Members Debbie Goettel and Marion Greene, along with Fernando and Conley, who originally voted on committee to advance the pay raise proposal. Kevin Anderson and Heather Edelson voted against. Jeffrey Lunde was not present at that meeting but indicated that he was opposed.