A government commission once again has set its sights on drawing up a pay plan for the state's elected officials and judges.

But the job has attracted little public attention.

Few people have shown up at public hearings this fall conducted by the Missouri Citizens Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials.

The group has held four hearings since August -- one each in Kirksville, Springfield, Jefferson City and St. Louis.

Less than two dozen people testified at the hearings. Two more are scheduled. One is slated to be held in Kansas City today. The final hearing is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Commission chairman Robert Kortkamp of Chesterfield said the salary issue has drawn public apathy.

"We just can't seem to stir up any interest, no matter how much we publicize it, how much we beg people," he said.

Even state lawmakers, whose salaries are among those that could be affected by a new pay plan, have been disinterested.

Only three of Missouri's 197 state lawmakers showed up at an evening hearing on Sept. 16 in Jefferson City. None of them testified.

Only two members of the public voiced views at the hearing.

Kortkamp said the commissioners had hoped more lawmakers would attend because legislators were in Jefferson City for the veto session.

Maxine Duckett of Mill Spring in Wayne County serves on the commission.

She said the salary process isn't working well, partly because of the lack of public interest.

In addition, lawmakers don't want to be placed in a position of having to vote themselves pay raises, Duckett said.

"I really don't know what will come of it," she said. "We have talked about whether this commission should continue."

The commission was established through a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November 1994 with the goal to take salary decisions out of the hands of legislators.

But that hasn't happened, Duckett said. Instead, lawmakers two years ago viewed it as a political hot potato and refused to approve the commission's pay plan.

Still, everyone from the governor to associate circuit judges have received pay raises in cost-of-living adjustments.

Salaries for this fiscal year include a 5 percent increase. The previous year, the increase was nearly 3 percent, according to the state's office of administration.

Duckett said voters would have to approve another constitutional amendment to scrap the commission system.

The 20-member commission is scheduled to meet in Jefferson City on Nov. 4 to iron out a pay plan that must be delivered to the secretary of state's office before Dec. 1.

The pay plan will automatically take effect July 1 unless rejected by both the Missouri House and Senate before Feb. 1. The Legislature will convene in January.

For Kortkamp and the other commissioners, this is round two.

The commission drafted its first pay plan in 1996. Lawmakers rejected it in 1997, saying they couldn't justify giving themselves a large pay raise.

The commission is required to review salaries for everyone from the state's governor to trial judges and draw up a pay plan every two years.

Two years ago, it called for pay raises that would have boosted lawmakers' salaries by nearly $8,200 over two years.

It also would have raised lawmakers' daily expense allowance from $35 to $86 and increased the salaries of judges and the lieutenant governor.

Duckett said she and a few other members of the commission opposed the pay increases for judges two years ago.

She said judges already make good salaries. Two years ago, the salaries ranged from $80,623 for associate circuit judges to $105,717 for Supreme Court judges.

Judges across the state pushed for the pay raises. "They are greedy," said Duckett, who doesn't thinks the public favors pay raises for judges.

The seven members of the Missouri Supreme Court expressed support for a pay raise for themselves and other judges in a May 21 letter to Kortkamp.

No specific amount of a raise was mentioned, but the Supreme Court judges suggested lawmakers won't approve pay raises exceeding 9 percent.

Duckett and Kortkamp said they can't predict what the commission will do this time around.

But Kortkamp, who has worked in the labor movement for 42 years, supported the previous pay plan.

"I have never been shy to ask for a raise," he said.

John Boehm, deputy commissioner of Missouri's office of administration, assists the commission.

Boehm said lawmakers can't tinker with the pay plan, approve it or reject it.

Even though lawmakers rejected the commission's pay plan, they enacted a separate measure that raised their per diem from $35 to $65.60 a day.

Asked about the legality of such a move, Boehm said it is assumed that what the Legislature does is constitutional unless it is challenged.

A retired St. Louis County judge has sued the state to try to revive the $8 million package of salary hikes for judges, legislators and the lieutenant governor.

Kenneth M. Weinstock filed the lawsuit last January in Cole County Circuit Court. The case is pending, Boehm said.

Weinstock has argued that lawmakers violated the state constitution by rejecting the package in two days instead of the three normally needed for the reading of bills. Legislative leaders have said the rules were suspended to speed passage of the resolution rejecting the pay raises.

Even if the pay plan had been approved, it still would have required lawmakers to appropriate the money before it could have taken effect, state Sen. John Schneider and others have argued.

Under that scenario, Weinstock still wouldn't have gotten a raise.