The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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Council, mayor reject pay raise
Compensation group recommneded 3 percent increase in salary
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2007
Saline City Council members and the mayor will continue to be compensated at last year's rates after the council Monday rejected a recommended pay increase.
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The four-member Local Officers Compensation Commission met Jan. 22 and proposed a 3 percent pay increase for elected officials through 2008.
The commission, made up of Chairman Charles McGill, Gene Corfman, Mike Johnson and Richard Nehring, suggested annual salaries of $4,000 for the mayor, $2,475 for the mayor pro tem and $2,175 for council members.
"We feel these salaries are comparable to other salaries of elected officials within Michigan cities the same size as the city of Saline," the commission wrote in a memo to City Clerk Dianne Hill.
The commission relied on a salary and wage study provided by the Michigan Municipal League.
Each year, the MML prepares a comprehensive survey on salaries and wages in Michigan municipalities with populations over 1,000. The results are available online, free of charge, to MML members.
The mayor currently receives $3,900 in compensation, while the mayor pro tem is paid $2,400 and council members $2,100.
The 2006 salaries reflect a small increase from 2005, when the mayor was paid $3,800, the mayor pro tem $2,300 and council members $2,050.
The new salaries would have become effective 30 days following the commission's filing with the city clerk Jan. 25 unless the council rejected them.
Monday night, the council did just that.
Council Trustee Kathy Roth made the motion to reject the salary increases and was seconded by council member Terri Sibo.
"I didn't think it was the right time," Roth said. "It's not the amount of the money, it's the principle at this time."
The council's gesture comes at a time when the state's economy has stooped through six consecutive years of net job losses, highlighted recently by the announcement last month that the pharmaceutical company Pfizer was closing its research and development facility in Ann Arbor, displacing some 2,100 employees.
At the same time, city leaders watch warily the uncertain fortune of the city's largest taxpayer, Automotive Components Holdings LLC, which is slotted to be sold or closed by the end of 2008.
Newly elected Councilman David Rhoads supported turning down the recommended raise.
"I'd like to suggest we reject the increase for 2007-08," he said, "in a spirit of frugality."
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