Franklin County commissioners meet Jan. 7 at their office at 140 Main St. in Farmington. This year they will each make  $18,845 in salary and flex benefits. From left are Tom Saviello of Wilton, Thomas Skolfield of Weld, Chairman Bob Carlton of Freeman Township, Jeff Gilbert of Jay and Fenwick Fowler of Farmington. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal file

FARMINGTON — The five Franklin County commissioners will each make $18,845 in salary and flex benefits this year.

Of that amount, $12,000 is the annual salary and $6,845 is the flex benefit package, county Deputy Administrator Tiffany Baker said.

Franklin County commissioners’ salaries have been the same since 2016. That year the County Budget Advisory Committee and commissioners voted to eliminate benefits for commissioners but the change was never made.

In 2012-13 fiscal year, commissioners were to receive between $8,100 and $8,500 in salary and 70% of a full-time employee’s benefits. The budget committee voted to cut the flex benefit package for elected part-time personnel, which were three commissioners and the treasurer.

Several attempts by the budget committee have been made over the years to lower the commissioners’ salaries below $12,000 and failed. The budget committee in 2016 voted to pay the commissioners a flat salary of $12,000 a year and eliminate the benefits. The committee went as far as adopting a policy to give it the authority to set commissioners’ pay in 2015.

However, the budget committee by state statute has no authority to set salaries for county workers, including elected commissioners; only commissioners do.

Former Commissioners Terry Brann of Wilton and Charles Webster, formerly of Farmington, agreed in 2016 to take a flat pay of $12,000 a year. Former Commissioner Clyde Barker of Strong, who died in 2022, voted against the motion, Brann said Wednesday. Brann’s term expired Dec. 31, 2024.

Webster and Brann also voted not to take mileage so that they were only making the $12,000 a year, he said.

However, because there was never a vote to change the county’s personnel policy to eliminate benefits for part-time elected officials, county Administrator Amy Bernard said, the wording remained in the policy.

Bernard picked up on the policy not being changed in the fall of 2022. She began her duties as county administrator in May 2022.

Brann asked for the flex benefits to be removed then but it was in the policy and wasn’t changed.

In 2020, the budget committee voted to reduce the commissioners’ annual salary to $10,000. But two of three commissioners voted to override the budget panel’s decision and keep their salary at $12,000. The third commissioner was out sick that day. In the end, the budget committee didn’t have the votes to override the commissioners’ decision.

As it stands, because the new commissioners opted not to take flex benefits this year, commissioners will each receive 35% of a full-time employee’s benefits, which equals $6,845 this year.

Salaries vary around state

It is difficult to compare salaries and benefits among counties because some get benefits and others don’t, some get longevity pay, some get cost-of-living increases and others get a flat salary.

According to a pay study for county employees, in 2022, Penobscot County commissioners were the highest paid in the state. The chairperson was paid an annual salary of $16,474 and the other two commissioners were paid $15,694. Those figures do not include health insurance or retirement benefits, Scott Adkins, the administrator for Penobscot County in the Bangor area, wrote in an email.

“The numbers for 2025 … would be $18,377 for the chairperson and 17,482 for the remaining two commissioners,” he wrote.

“This does not include health insurance or retirement contributions,” Adkins said. “On average, for 2025, I would say around $30k (per) commissioner.”

The seven Androscoggin County commissioners are paid $4,000 each with the chairperson making $4,500. It is the same as in 2016.

In Aroostook County, the chairperson’s salary was listed in 2022 as $5,523 and the two other commissioners were listed as $3,946. The commissioners do receive benefits and cost-of-living increases. It is a slight increase from 2016 when the Sun Journal conducted a salary survey. Aroostook County Administrator Ryan Pelletier said then that commissioners also received $225 per meeting in addition to the salary, which equaled about $4,025 a year.