The current salary of the City Council was established at the rates as indicated below in August of 1988:
- Mayor-$350.00 per month
- Councilmembers-$300.00 per month
Since the time of the adoption of the ordinance which established the salaries noted there has not been any type of a salary adjustment. This thirty-three year duration is absolutely uncommon in the private sector and in most public-sector positions. As a result of the fact that the cost of living has certainly increased since then I believe that it is appropriate to evaluate the current salaries of the City Council. Additionally, I believe that adequate compensation levels are necessary to attract and retain skilled people to seek positions for public office.
The City Charter provides a method by which the salary of city councilmembers may be amended and in short it must be accomplished by ordinance and additionally must precede the next regular election by six (6) months. In order to prepare a recommendation for you to consider data was obtained from the base of communities which are considered to be comparable based on commonalities such as: form of government, size of community, budget size, number of employees etc. The city relies on these comparable communities for all salary and benefit compensation data. A copy of a Salary Schedule which contains the detail as provided by the individual communities is attached for your review. As you can see from the schedule it looks like the elected officials in the almost all of the communities surveyed earn higher salaries than the current salaries set for council members. Therefore a pay increase is certainly appropriate. In order to determine an amount to recommend to you I averaged the amounts of the salaries of the city’s comparable communities as contained on the schedule. The recommended amounts are as follows:
- Mayor- $800.00 per month
- Councilmember- $625.00 per month
Please recognize that the recommended amount is not intended to represent actual compensation for services provided as I fully acknowledge that all of you put forward much more effort for which you are not compensated as a result of your interest and commitment to public service.