MAYVILLE - The question of whether a supervisor or boss should make more money than his subordinates was answered by the County Legislature recently during its monthly meeting.

In recent months, the County Legislature has been debating whether a Sheriff''''s Department captain should make more money than the six lieutenants he supervises. Through working night shifts and vacation incentives, two of the lieutenants in 2007 made more money than the captain. The situation prompted the question whether or not the salary range for the captain should be increased to allow him to earn more money than the officers he supervises.

During the meeting, the legislature voted 20 to 4 to increase the salary range. Wally Huckno, D-Jamestown who proposed the resolution to increase the salary range, said there was an inequity among the officers with the captain making less than a couple of the lieutenants.

''''''''I always wanted to make more than the principal made, but that wasn''''t to be the case. The principals wanted to make more than the (assistant superintendents), and the (assistant superintendents) more than the superintendents,'''''''' he said. ''''''''What we have here is because of several lieutenants who will always have night duty, it skews the range of salaries and the best way to fix this is taking our captain and putting him at a (higher salary range), so he will always remain just ahead of the lieutenants and always remain somewhat behind the undersheriff.''''''''

Fred Croscut, R-Sherman and minority leader, who was against the proposal in may before the motion was tabled, said he changes his opinion on the matter, wanting to encourage employees to aspire for more challenging managerial positions.

''''''''We need people from the rank and file within this county to step up to managerial positions,'''''''' he said. ''''''''It is not just in the Sheriff''''s Department. It''''s in all of county government. What better way to have people from within be promoted to these management positions. They have to have some incentive when they are giving up their union rights.''''''''

Brian Abram, R-Sinclairville, who was against the motion, said he is worried about the chain reaction increasing the captain''''s salary might have with other county management positions.

''''''''While I admit the range is very tight, I don''''t believe at this time we should be changing the range,'''''''' he said. ''''''''I am afraid if we do we can end up in this situation throughout county government.''''''''

According to county information, the captain in 2007 made $70,440 while the lieutenants averaged $70,381. However, because of vacation and night pay bonuses, two of the lieutenants made more money in 2007 than the captain. With the change in salary range, the captain could potentially make between $1,700 and $1,800 more.