He is standing by a campaign promise of never voting for a pay raise for himself, an issue that recently surfaced due to a new law, House Bill 2573.
In the bill, a single word was changed; counties "may" pay elected officials up to the maximum amount determined under the formula was revised to say that counties "shall" pay them that amount.
"I found out about the bill just a few weeks ago and began investigating immediately," said Maughn. "The law that was designed goes in to effect Nov. 1 of this year and I was extremely concerned. I made a campaign pledge that I wouldn't ever vote for [myself] a pay raise. The concern is that any public official would consider a pay raise [for] any of their county officials in this economic downturn."
The bill drew wide attention since Comanche County Commissioner Ron Kirby raised his salary to the highest allowed under state law. Kirby did rescind his salary increase since the law does not go into effect until this November.
The new law implied a raise for all county official salaries across the state.
Currently, Oklahoma County Commissioners make about $105,000 per year. Commissioner salaries are determined by several factors; a base pay, population and formula factoring in property valuations in each county.
In a special meeting of county officials last week, Oklahoma County Assessor Leonard Sullivan criticized Maughn, saying he sought media attention on this matter and had paved only one mile of road since taking office.
"We have done about 22 miles total," Maughn said in an interview with The City Sentinel. "We have done 10 lane miles and we are about to add 22 more with microsurfacing. Regarding the media, FOX news sought me out. I have had a policy since I came in to this office that if they [the media] came to me, I would work with them."
Maughn and his team had some repair work to do after the tenure of previous District 2 Commissioner Brent Rinehart who "didn't clean a single ditch in four years." Maughn added, "We have had to go in and do a lot of prevent maintenance; and of course, we had a few natural disasters to deal with."
The 'few' natural disasters Maughn referenced include the firestorm which burned through his district in April of 2009, five harsh winter storms since he took office and a massive hail storm and a tornado in May of this year. "Every mile of destruction from the [2010] tornado in Oklahoma County was in was in District 2." (Refer to 'Preliminary damage map of May 10, 2010 tornado' on Leonard Sullivan's website at www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor.)
Maughn has dealt with more than just building bridges and paving roads. Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry declared a state of emergency in Oklahoma in early May due to the disastrous weather. "So, we had some other stuff to do," added Maughn.
"It took till the end of last month to clean that [tornado damage] up. If not for the 10,000 hours of volunteers assisting us, we wouldn't have completed it that fast."
At the end of the meeting held last Thursday, elected county officials agreed to freeze their salaries this year.
Sullivan continued criticizing Maughn outside the meeting, saying Maughn had embarrassed him. He had said in the meeting that he didn't want to have to "explain to people at church or Rotary," asking Maughn to apologize to the entire county staff.
Maughn ended the interview by saying, "My cell number is 824-3120 if anyone wants to ask me anything, just call me and I'll give them an answer." As The City Sentinel went to press on Monday, Sullivan had not responded to requests for comments by email or phone.
