After reading a Gazette story about the Linn County Compensation Board’s recommendations, a local attorney said to me, “I bet the local public defender is not making that much money” in referring to the proposed wages for the Linn County Attorney. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the State Public Defender’s Office in Johnson County and wondered how much the State’s public defenders (attorneys) are paid. So I gathered some facts relative to Linn County – see table below.
Do these wage disparities make any sense? Chief Judge Grady and District Judge Miller preside over trials in which County Attorney Van Sanden is the prosecuting attorney and Sissel is the defense attorney; yet, a $14K to $32K pay gap exists between our County Attorney, and the judges and public defender. Is the County Attorney paid too much? Or are the judges and public defenders paid too little? If you have an opinion, contact the Linn County Board of Supervisors regarding the Linn County Attorneys and/or contact your legislator regarding the State employees. Seems to me that these wages are out of whack! –Joel D. Miller – Linn County Auditor
Sources: Office of Linn County Auditor for County of Linn employees – click on hyperlinks for other sources.
| Mark Cady | Chief Justice of Iowa Supreme Court | $178,538 |
| Jerry Vander Sanden | Linn County Attorney – elected | $163,980 |
| Patrick Grady | Chief Judge of 6th Judicial District | $149,226 |
| Paul Miller | District Court Judge – 6th District | $143,897 |
| N Maybanks & G Jarvis | Assistant Linn County Attorneys | $139,383 |
| Brian Sissel | Public Defender Supervisor – Linn County | $131,592 |
| Tom Miller | Attorney General of Iowa – elected | $123,669 |
| T Johnson | Public Defender 3 – Linn County | $111,821 |
| B Belcher | Assistant Linn County Attorney | $105,814 |
| N Tucker | Public Defender 2 – Linn County | $93,517 |
| D Davis | Public Defender 2 – Linn County | $67,041 |
| A Dollash | Public Defender 2 – Linn County | $64,578 |
| FY16 starting wage | Prosecutor 1 – Linn County | $63,742 |
| K Frank | Public Defender 1 – Linn County | $38,730 |
| D Grinde | Public Defender 1 – Linn County | $27,696 |
| Key: County of Linn employees 1/1/2015 – 12/31/2015 wages; State of Iowa employees 7/1/2014 – 6/30/2015 wages |
Tags: brian sissel, chief judge, chief justice, compensation, county attorney, gary jarvis, jerry vander sanden, mark cady, nick maybanks, patrick grady, public defender, tom miller
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