Shortly after taking her position in 2022, Deborah Makowski began pushing for pay range increases as Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon listened in the background. File photo

About 16 minutes into the debate for Chautauqua County executive that was sponsored by WRFA-FM in Jamestown last week, challenger Tom Carle began some talking points regarding payroll for the largest government employer that stood out. One, in fact, was a real eye opener.

“I’ve actually found some people who were making exorbitant salaries for the task that I believe they’re doing. … I actually found one person whose salary went up over $100,000 in over three years,” he said. “That is unheard of … and I’ve never seen that.”

Those who view seethroughny.net can find exactly what Carle was referencing when looking at the figures. In 2023, the website indicated that Deborah Makowski, who was named director of human resources in the summer of 2022, earned $67,000 for her nearly half-year stint. By 2024, she was up to $175,946.

Carle was not totally correct in his assessment during the debate. But those are the numbers, which carry more weight than just an opinion.

As for Makowski, who has been the face of the recent pay surges in Chautauqua County for managers and elected officials during her short tenure, she’s reaping the benefits. According to seethroughny.net, her wages are the second highest for the group of government workers.

In 2023, during a Salary Review Commission that included prodding by the human resources director, legislators voted in favor of hiking pay ranges for a number of managers while also increasing pay for the human resources director and real property taxes director.

“The two proposed local laws are to increase the salary ranges, not salaries,” Makowski told lawmakers at that time. “Basically, the only financial impact from the proposed local laws is six individuals who would then fall below the minimum of their newly assigned range. … That total impact would cost $9,948.”

We wish.

No matter how you slice it, once these actions were approved the floodgates — none of which are state mandates — were opened. Consider the county’s payroll in 2023, according to seethroughny.net. At that time, there were 1,337 employees who earned a total of $62.8 million. By 2025, 1,374 employees were earning a combined $75 million — a $12 million, or 19.4% increase.

Six-figure salaries also increased during that same period. In 2023, there were only 20 employees and managers making above $100,000 per year. By 2025, 57 had crossed that threshold. These numbers, it should be noted, do not take into account health and retirement benefits for these employees.

All this in just three years.

County Republicans, who dominate the legislature and leadership positions, keep telling constituents they are fiscally conservative with your tax dollars. How do you possibly explain these types of increases that Albany would be proud of over three years?

By the way, Chautauqua County government is sitting on about $36 million in surpluses. If that is the case — and they refuse to return that money to taxpayers — officials must be worried about reductions by the federal government that will trickle down to the states. Since employees are consistently being added to the county while manager salaries rise at overly generous levels, there is a definite payroll headache looming.

It must be noted that some of the managers on the list who have been rewarded with increases have been loyal employees and have contributed a great deal of time and effort to the government. But we just do not see those same attributes for an individual who has been in a position for under four years.

During one Salary Review Commission, our newspaper editorially took issue with the premise that employees here were underpaid when making comparisons to similar positions across New York that included Broome, Ontario, Putnam, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties.

So what? It is common knowledge the cost of living is higher in those areas than Chautauqua County, which is one of the poorest in the state.

For his part, incumbent County Executive PJ Wendel did not duck the statement by Carle on the massive salary increase. He replied, with honesty, noting he would “really like to find out who got a raise of $100,000 over three years.”

To his comments, the human resources director did not get a $100,000 raise. But there is no denying she’s doing quite well for herself. After all, the person holding the position previously earned less than $90,000 in her final year.

Incumbent legislators, which include 14 Republicans, are obviously ecstatic with Makowski’s view on growing payroll. In February 2024, they followed suit by approving a more than 60% pay raise for themselves that begins this coming January.

If that is the fiscal leadership county taxpayers deserve, we can only blush knowing that many of these lawmakers consider themselves to be conservative. The results are far from it.

John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.