The Cole County Commission voted 2-1 to give county officials due back pay triggered by an unnoticed change in state law.
At Tuesday's commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman and Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle voted for the move. Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher voted against it.
Cole County government owes back pay to 10 elected officials whose salaries were lower than they should have been.
Two different lawyers delivered the same message to county officials earlier this year, basing their legal opinions on a 2007 state law change and a 2011 ruling by the Springfield-based Southern District appeals court.
"How do we know this is it?" Hoelscher asked. "I still believe if you want to do this, take it to court. Every official running for office knows what they are going to make."
Lowell Pearson with the Husch Blackwell law firm told the elected officials in July he estimated the county owes about $370,000 in back pay, plus the costs of benefits like retirement that were tied to the salaries.
"We took an oath to uphold the law, and I believe this is the best way to fix it," Scheperle said.
Finance Director Debbie Malzner reported Tuesday afternoon - after the commission's meeting and vote - the newly calculated "pay out" plus "benefit cost" would total $482,182.54 for the five-years-owed back pay.
The salary changes alone will cost $83,019.09 more per year, plus benefits.
State law since the 1980s has required all county governments to have a salary commission to deal with issues around elected officials' salaries - including the assessor, auditor, county clerk, collector, presiding and associate commissioners, public administrator, recorder of deeds and treasurer.
The circuit clerk, prosecuting attorney and sheriff are paid under different laws and aren't affected by the legal opinions requested by Collector Larry Vincent in his role as salary commission chairman.
"None of us was aware of the changes to state statutes that occurred in 2007," said former Western District Commissioner Chris Wrigley, who served from 2004-12. "During the two salary commission meetings that occurred while I was in office this never came up, so there was no collusion on this."
Cole County became a first-class county in 1997. State law sets four different classes of counties, based on total assessed property values.
The law also sets different salary levels for the elected officials in each class - except for first class counties with charter governments, like St. Louis and Jackson counties.
Both Pearson and Jefferson City attorney Michael Berry noted the Legislature in 2005 set a salary schedule for first-class counties but included an exception where the current pay was "lower than the compensation provided under the salary schedule" - and Cole County salaries were acceptable under that law.
But the problem came in 2007, both attorneys said, when lawmakers kept the salary schedule but removed the exception.
Taney County Collector Sheila Wyatt sued her county for paying her too little, and the county counter-sued that she had been paid too much.
An appeals court opinion in July 2011 focused on the 2007 law change and said "the legislature intended for each county official to have his or her salary set at the statutory amount."
In Cole County, both Berry and Pearson advised the officials that means the affected county officials should be making $57,000 a year - no matter whether their jobs are considered full or parttime.
The two associate commissioners would earn $55,000 a year under a separate law that gives the presiding commissioner $2,000 more each year than the associates.
In 2011, none of the elected officials earned $57,000 a year, and only Public Administrator Marilyn Schmutzler's $56,005 came close.
With cost-of-living raises since, Schmutzler and Assessor Chris Estes will earn almost $59,439 this year - more than the statutory level.
Four other officials - Vincent, Auditor Kristen Berhorst, County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer and Recorder Ralph Bray - earn more than $56,000 but less than the statutory levels set in 2007.
Berry and Pearson said a five-year statute of limitations would mean the county wouldn't owe back pay for wrong salaries before 2011.
Al Mueller had battles over elected officials' salaries during his time as county treasuer, but left the office in 2009, before the period covered by the changes approved Tuesday. "I don't have a dog in this fight," he told commissioners. "I just came up to tell you I told you so."