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An Iowa House subcommittee agreed to move House File 37 forward on Thursday. The bill removes the requirement in state law that counties with populations of 200,000 or less must set a county attorney’s salary between 45 and 100 percent of a district court judge’s salary.

Jamie Cashman of the Iowa State Association of Counties said the organization is in strong support of the proposal to help retain county attorneys, which he said is a “tremendous challenge.”

Kelly Meyers of the Iowa County Attorney Association said some county attorneys have had to receive calls from their county auditors to be informed they couldn’t receive a raise because then they’d be making more than a district court judge.

“With district court judges’ salaries not moving over a period of years, that is what has created this issue,” she said. “To keep our county attorneys, we need to be able to pay them accordingly.”

Ian McConeghey, who serves as the executive director of the county attorney association, said the bill offers the state an opportunity to gain a lot while losing very little.

Counties will be responsible for paying the increased salaries and will be allowed to pay what they believe is appropriate and necessary to keep their county attorney. He added many counties have shared county attorneys because they can’t find anyone to serve as county attorneys. One individual is the county attorney for two counties and an assistant county attorney in two other counties.

Caitlin Jarzen with the Iowa Judicial Branch said the problem could be fixed if the state paid district court judges more.

“We would like to have all ships rise together,” she said. “Judges went a number of years without seeing pay increases.”

That is when this became a problem for county attorneys. While the legislature issued a 5 percent pay increase for judges last year, she said the group would like to see salaries continue to increase that way a county attorney’s salary could also increase without changing the law.

According to Jarzin, since 2010 the buying power of judges has dropped 16 percent. Judicial applicants have declined by 56 percent since 2003. Many applicants for the positions are county attorneys. And the Judicial Branch would still like those county attorneys to apply, but if they’re able to make more than judges, then the group fears they’ll lose even more applicants.

Republican State Rep. Sam Wengryn said he represents a county that uses a shared county attorney. He said he supports the proposal.

Democrat State Rep. Joseph “Aime” Wichtendahl asked how much the overall pay disparity is in some counties. According to McGoneghey, a district court judge’s salary is set to $165,000 a year. Assistant county attorneys are capped at 85 percent of a judge’s salary.

McGoneghey said Story County struggles to retain assistants because the population is below 200,000. So those assistants can get a job in Des Moines and “make a whole lot more money” than Story County is legally allowed to pay them.

Wichtendahl supported the measure as well.

Republican State Rep. Martin Graber said he would support the bill as it advanced to full committee.

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