The issue should have been on Monday's commission budget workshop agenda, according to Wayne Schnell, a leader of the Cross-County Tea Party group.
"We are concerned that this issue is being swept under the carpet and will not be addressed," he said.
When the commission's budget committee recommended in May that commissioners take a pay cut to help balance the 2012-13 budget, most commissioners seemed to agree it was a good idea.
The committee proposed that yearly pay for commissioners be cut from $8,000 to $4,000.
"I thought that it was appropriate because we were asking other departments to make sacrifices," said Commissioner Sharon Yarborough.
At the June commission meeting, Commissioner Don Miller provided data showing that Loudon commissioners are the fifth highest paid among Tennessee counties.
When it came time to vote on the budget amendments, however, the pay cut wasn't included.
After a lengthy discussion, the commission voted to table the issue until the next budget committee meeting.
Schnell said he expected to see the item on Monday's workshop agenda.
"Was this issue settled behind closed doors?" he said.
After Monday's meeting, Yarborough said she had asked for the pay cut proposal to be put on the agenda. She later learned that other commissioners, as yet unidentified, asked that the issue not be on the agenda, she said.
Among their concerns was the fact that not all commissioners would be at the workshop. Commissioners Bob Franke and Austin Shaver were absent.
If some commissioners decided privately to remove the item from the agenda it would in effect be deliberating on the issue and a violation of the state's open meetings act, according to Loudon County activist Pat Hunter.
"Agreeing in private not to discuss an issue is like voting against," she said.
Yarborough said she would hope that the issue is discussed thoroughly in public, regardless of how the full commission votes. The next time to have such a discussion and vote would be at the Aug. 9 commission meeting, she said.
Schnell said he was told some commissioners do not keep the money they get for themselves, but give it to their favorite charity.
"I told them that this is taxpayer money and it is not for them to decide what charity they should give the money to, even though it might be to a good cause," he said.
According to the Tennessee County Commissioners Association, the minimum compensation for county commissioners varies from $20 to $35 for each day's attendance at meetings depending upon county population. The county legislative body may by resolution set their compensation as a monthly salary, so long as the amount is greater than the minimum compensation per meeting.