FAYETTEVILLE — Roger Morris maintained Wednesday he’s never asked for a raise.
Not the $35,238 members of the Quorum Court pondered giving Washington County’s coroner Oct. 10.
Not the $16,000 officials later considered after public outcry doused the higher figure.
Nor the current $12,247 proposed raise.
“Well, I’m not going to turn it down,” Morris said. “If it means the difference between me and the county employees not getting their raises, no, I don’t want the raise. If it doesn’t, then yes.”
The debate over Morris’ salary arose in October as the Quorum Court tried to work out details of giving full-time elected officials a pay increase. The justices of the peace sought to set salaries of eight full-time elected officials at 85 percent of the maximum allowed by law.
The eight officials are the county judge, assessor, tax collector, treasurer, sheriff, coroner, circuit clerk and county clerk.
For seven, the approach would result in raises of a few thousand dollars . But for coroner, a position made full-time in 2009, the measure would have moved his salary from $48,990 to $84,228.
Since then, Morris’ salary has become a point of Quorum Court contention. The big pay raise prompted constituents to call.
Justice of the Peace Rex Bailey, an opponent to the original raise and two subsequent compromises, tried Tuesday to set the raise somewhere around 4 percent of the current salary. That’s a similar percentage to what the other elected leaders would get.
“I still don’t think it’s right to give a person a $16,000 raise when he’s the second-highest paid coroner in the state of Arkansas,” Bailey said.
The highest-paid coroner makes almost double Morris’ salary, according the county staff.
“It went from a part-time to a full time,” said Justice of the Peace Ann Harbison. “It’s a matter of fairness to me that this position does just as much work as other elected positions in this county and therefore we need to move that salary up.”
Morris suggested in an Oct. 25 memo to the Quorum Court a 25 percent raise, which equals $12,247. He proposed the position receive increases regularly until the salary it’s equal to other full-time officials’ pay.
Morris said Friday he was only suggesting a less expensive alternative, if the Quorum Court wanted to give him a five-digit raise.
Justices of the Peace Butch Pond and Tom Lundstrum backed Morris’ proposal.
Throughout, the Quorum Court members have struggled with the raise for the position vs. a raise for Morris, who has been coroner for eight two-year terms.
Morris said he views the coroner’s position and himself, for now, as one and the same.
“The coroner’s office can stand alone, but as far as education goes and what we’ve been able to do, I am the coroner of Washington County,” he said.
Morris said he’s developed the office from working out of a funeral home to now having its own building, three vehicles, three staff and a receptionist to be hired soon, all approved by Quorum Court.
He plans to stay in office for the foreseeable future. He’s on a governor-appointed coroner’s group looking to require training for elected coroners. Until that happens, Morris said he hopes to stay in office.
“We can’t prevent someone from running, because that’s against the Constitution, but we can make them get the education after they’re elected,” Morris said. “Hopefully, by the time I decide to step down, we can have things in place.”
Quorum Court members will decide the coroner’s salary when it adopts the county budget in December.