The Wood County Salary Grievance Committee public hearing this Thursday morning has been postponed until next week.

The salary grievance request is from three Wood County justices of the peace who are seeking a raise. They are seeking to be paid on the same scale as other elected officials in the county.

The committee includes County Judge Kevin White as the chairman and he does not vote. Others on the committee are Sheriff Kelly Cole, County Clerk Kelley Price, District Clerk Suzy Wright, Tax-Assessor Collector Carol Taylor and County Treasurer Daphne Carter. There are also three members from the public on the committee. Those persons will be named after a special county commissioner meeting Friday at 9 a.m.

“This is an administrative process elected officials have to go through when seeking a raise in salary,” White said.

At the public hearing there will be a presentation of the committee’s procedures, the hearing regarding grievances filed by an elected official(s), deliberation of the committee and a vote by paper ballot for each grievance (or by other means as determined by the committee). 

Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Jerry Parker, Precinct 2 JP Janae Holland and Precinct 1 JP Tony Gilbreath are seeking a raise to make the salary other elected officials make. Each judge takes turns working weekends and on-call hours in addition to regular hours. 

In the proposed 2024 budget, JPs in Wood County will receive $70,345 while fellow elected officials (county judge, sheriff, treasurer, county clerk and district clerk) were raised to $79,547.

“I don’t know what to expect; this will be my seventh try to get paid what the others are already making,” Parker said.   

The hearing is open to the public.