City council members will not be getting a raise similar to their county board counterparts.
The city council Tuesday voted against giving a 3% raise to city council members and the mayor. That despite the council pay having not been increased since at least 2008.
Currently council members make around $5,300 per year.
The idea of a raise came with a no recommendation from two city committees, and most said they didn’t support raising the council’s pay. Lisa Rasmussen and Doug Diny, for instance, both agreed that the time wasn’t right.
“This shouldn’t have seen the light of day,” Diny said of the resolution.
A county committee last week gave approval to the idea of raising county board member’s pay by 3%, and increasing extended pay for those who chair committees or serve as vice chairs.
Council member Lou Larson supported the pay raise. Even though he doesn’t think council members do it for the money, he wondered how anyone could expect people to run for office if the pay stays flat.
Council member Tom Kilian went a step further and proposed that the council actually reduce pay by 3%. That motion failed 8-2, as did the motion to increase pay for the council.
Had the pay raise been increased, it would have started the next term; governing bodies are unable to approve raises for their own session.
