Politics & Government

Council to Determine How Much Its Salary Should Be Cut

Two dueling pieces of legislation offer a 10 percent or 40 percent cut in salary.

City Council continued its discussion about how much it should make it 2012 and all seven members agreed that cuts need to be made, but by how much is still undecided.

Once councilors proposal would cut its and the mayor's salary by 10 percent and give a raise to some employees in the city who "were identified in the compensation plan of 2008 as being paid below the generally accepted wage for their positions."

The other proposal would cut Council's salary by 40 percent and the mayor's salary by 10 percent in 2012 and put the money back into the roads fund.

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Council is still undetermined as to how much they want to cut and where the money should be redistributed, but it is considering pieces of dueling legislation from City Council Vice President Sara Drew and Councilor Mike Rasor.

Rasor, who suggested , said he is not "married" to the 40 percent cut, but said he was clear about one thing, "This city does not need raises."

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Councilors make $16,660 annually and the president makes $17,660, said Finance Director John Baranek. The mayor's annual salary is $90,215.

"We are overpaid and it's time to fix that," Rasor said.

However, Drew, Council President Janet D'Antonio and other members of Council disagree with the fact that they are "overpaid."

"I'm open to the possibility of reducing pay, but not based on the premise that we are over paid," said D'Antonio. "A cut in pay is not going to personally affect me ... a laborer is worthy of their hire and I only support a fair wage that reflects the worthyness of the job for the next people coming in."

Rasor contests that councilors are "overpaid" because the pay boils down to about $180 an hour, based on time spent in meetings in a year.

D'Antonio, as well as other councilors, said so much of a their job is also spent outside of council's chambers.

How much would each proposal save?

Rasor's proposal to cut 40 percent from the council's salary and 10 percent from the mayor's, would save $54,280 annually and be used to repair roads and buy snow-clearing vehicles.

Drew's proposal of 10 percent for council and the mayor, would save $15,400 a year. She said she wants half the savings to go to employees in the city who are underpaid and the other half to go into the city's unencumbered funds (a city savings account).

Another difference between their proposals is that Rasor would take away the extra $1,000 the council president makes and Drew said she wants the president to still make $1,000 more than the other six councilors.


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