“CHEERS to all those who won an uphill battle to rescind pay hikes for Rock Island County officeholders and to the members of the county board who took mere minutes to do the right thing in voting them down in at a special meeting Thursday. Rich Morthland, the 25-member panel’s lone Republican member and a candidate for state representative, gets an additional round of applause for leading the charge. So do those who quickly followed by contacting their county board member to complain. Only five Democrats had joined Mr. Morthland in voting against the initial plan that would have raised the salaries of clerk, treasurer and sheriff over two years beginning in 2012. On Thursday, the board instead voted to freeze salaries at the current levels until 2014. “The county did their due diligence and their research and it looked like there should’ve been raises,” county board chairman Jim Bohnsack said. “But when you are a public official and the people say ‘We don’t want any raises,’ you listen well.”

Mr. Morthland said, “This is a great night for the people of Rock Island County, because the people won a victory,” he said. “The people won tonight proving, in fact, we are not governed by a handful of politicians. We are governed by the will and consent of the people of Rock Island County.” That is all to often too easy to forget. You can’t fight city hall?

Well, sometimes you can. Salute!”

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