Timestamp Index
0:00. Call to order, roll call, motion to approve consent agenda, move to approve minutes.
1:23. Madison County Attorney Steve Swanson makes presentation asking for salary increase. Referring to the Sheriff receiving the proposed 23% increase, he stated that “it would be unusual for the sheriff to make considerably more than the county attorney. I think we would be the only county in the state that did that.” (Editorial Note: in FY2026, looking Iowa counties with full-time County Attorneys, 12.7% of those counties have a Sheriff that makes at least $10,000 more than the County Attorney. Source: https://ss.iowacounties.org)
2:10. Swanson presents county attorney salaries of the “counties surrounding Polk County.” The average county attorney salary of the surrounding counties of Boone, Jasper, Marion, Story, Warren, and Dallas is $167,774 Madison County is $126,116 and the State of Iowa average is $144,735 as of 2025.
4:40 Swanson states that a salary increase would benefit the entire County Attorney’s office and give the ability to hire assistants in the future
5:40 Questioning begins
6:40 Jerry Parkin – Recap of salary increases recommended so far: 5%: Recorder 5%: Treasurer 3%: Auditor 0%: Supervisors 23%: Sheriff
8:15. Dave Lagrange reads from the handout that Swanson provided, stating that there are 6 counties in Iowa where the Sheriff makes at least $1000 more than the County Attorney: Adair, Cedar, Hardin, Story, Tama, Woodbury (Editorial Note: There are a total of 17 counties where the Sheriff makes at least $1000 more than the the full-time County Attorney however the list provided to the compensation board excluded 11 of those).
9:15. Linda Juckette arrives to meeting
9:20. Ross Rethmeier who is representing Swanson gives thoughts; suggests making some changes
11:00. Linda Juckette asks about number of assistants and paralegals in Dallas County
11:53. Revisiting topic of how many counties have the Sheriff making more (also discussed at 8:15)
13:12. Madison County’s attorneys current salary is $128,116.
13:35. Dave Lagrange comments, roughly 13% would be equivalent to sheriffs office salary.
13:48. Jerry Parkin asks the board if they have recommendations of what increase they should look at.
14:12. Juckette comments that the compensation board “just received all of the information tonight. We asked for it last week and we didn’t get it until now. It’s a lot of numbers to take in now and make a decision, right?” No one, including Swanson, appeared to respond to that concern.
14:35. Juckette asks “are there any other discrepancies in our state that are this wide?” LaGrange mentions Cedar County with the County Attorney making $17k more. Rethmeier mentions Dickinson County where the County Attorney makes about $20k more than the Sheriff. (Editorial Note: No mention is made here of the counties where the Sheriff makes significantly more than a full-time County Attorney)
17:35. Parkin says an important thing to remember is the Sheriff’s Office raise is mandated by Back the Blue but there’s nothing that mandates what the County Attorney makes. It’s important to get him in the range when comparing other counties, but there is no requirement.
18:10. Juckette asks if the research takes into account the population of other surrounding counties which is much different from Madison County.
22:27. Jennifer Stover asks if the salary should be in the $140,000 range? To which Swanson replies “yes”
23:45. Juckette says it’s hard to compare surrounding counties because of population difference and what they deal with.
24:16. Attorney Swanson has staff concerns and comments that other counties’ Assistant County Attorneys are making more money than him.
25:30. A 13% increase as discussed
26:33. There is a motion to vote on a recommendation of 13%.
27:07 the motion is 2nd by Stover
27:25. Proposal on the floor is to recommend 13% increase to the Board of Supervisors.
27:50. A roll call vote is taken and all vote in favor.
28:00. The motion is adopted. A 13% increase will be the recommendation given to the Board of Supervisors.
28:00. No further discussion.
29:20. Meeting is adjourned.
Resources:
Full salary data for elected officials in Iowa: https://ss.iowacounties.org/
Handouts as send to us by a compensation board member:
Salary data of 65 Iowa counties: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/…
Number of assistant county attorneys: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/…
Note: 25:25 unknown 3-second electronic noise from observers that we had to tone down – it was extremely loud on our recording so we turned down the volume to avoid startling our viewers or waking sleeping babies.
