MANSFIELD — The majority of Mansfield City Council members voted Tuesday night to increase the pay of elected officials for the first time in a decade.
But by failing to gain the six votes needed to pass the measure as an emergency, it will not take effect in time to improve the compensation of the city’s mayor, law director, finance director or council members who begin new terms in January.
The proposed pay increases, which council reduced dramatically before putting the issue to a vote, were approved 5-3, supported by Cliff Mears (At-Large), David Falquette (1st Ward), Jon Van Harlingen (3rd Ward), Jason Lawrence (5th Ward) and Jean Taddie (6th Ward).
Outgoing councilmen Don Bryant (At-large), Jeff Rock (2nd Ward) and Walden “Butch” Jefferson (4th Ward), all of whom were in their final council meetings, voted against the increases.
Since the proposal didn’t receive two-thirds majority needed to passage as an emergency, the pay increase will not take effect for 30 days. State law prohibits an elected official from receiving a pay increase during their term in office.
With new four-year terms beginning Jan. 1 for Mayor Tim Theaker, Law Director John Spon, Finance Director Linn Steward and four members of council, none of them will see a pay increase.
Nor will Taddie and Mears, who will become council president in January. It also means incoming council members Cheryl Meier (2nd Ward) and Alomar Davenport (4th Ward) will also not see a pay increase. Nor will Phil Scott, who moves from council president to an At-large seat.
“It means that the elected officials who have worked for the last eight years (without a pay increase) will be working for another four years without any pay raise at all,” Spon said.
Elected officials in Mansfield had their pay frozen in 2009 when the city slipped into fiscal emergency. The city climbed out of fiscal emergency in 2014, but the freeze has remained in place.
Council members elected two years from now will get the pay increase when they take office in January 2022. So will the mayor, law director and finance director when they take office in 2024.
Council members taking office in 2022 will earn $8,311 annually. The next mayor, under the plan approved Tuesday night, is scheduled to be paid $91,775 annually, taking office in 2024. The law director and finance director would each earn $85,651, taking office in 2024.
During a nearly 50-minute employee relations committee meeting Tuesday, council amended the initial proposal, which had called for double-digit increases in the first year and 2 percent increases each of the proceeding three years.
Instead, the raises would have been 6 percent in the first year for all but the finance director, who would have seen a 10.7 percent hike to equal the law director’s salary. The raises then would have been 2 percent annually for the three proceeding years.
Van Harlingen, the finance committee chair who helped lead the amended increase proposal. said it was past time to raise the salaries, especially for the mayor, law director and finance director.
“We’re 10 years out and it’s been awhile. Its time to take a serious look at it. I somewhat feel we have waited too long and trying to catch up for 10 years is a little too much to ask for the general public. Its our mistake. I will take part of the blame for it. I have been around long enough,” he said before offering the reduced increases.
The mayor currently makes $81,000 annually, the law director $76,142, the finance director $72,879 and council members, who meet bi-monthly, each now earn $7,536 annually.
Jefferson remained the most outspoken councilman in opposition.
“When those elected officials ran for that job, they knew the amount of money they would be making,” he said just before the vote. “Citizens had elected them to do their jobs for that. … It’s a big jump. I personally took the job for the love of serving. I didn’t take it for the money. It’s unfortunate we had that freeze in 2008 or 2009, but i don’t know that we need to catch up like that.”
Jefferson said he could have supported smaller “cost of living” increases of 2 percent a year.
During a nearly 50-minute employee relations committee meeting, Rock said he could support a 2 percent cost-of-living increase.
“There are only three of us still on council (who were here) when we went into fiscal emergency. We were the ones who froze the wages. These wage increase are way above board,” said Rock, elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011 and 2015.
“I look at what we did to come out of fiscal emergency. We increased license plate fees twice to our public. We now have a PRIDE tax they’re paying for. We have increased the burden on our citizens. We have to look at that,” Rock said.
Bryant said Steward has warned council about its budget and “that we have limited spending. I can see the headlines tomorrow, ‘Council members give themselves a raise.’ Work together to bring in new jobs to the city, to bring a big employer to our city.”
In other action Tuesday, City Council:
— approved the city’s 2020 temporary budget, which must be finalized by the end of March.
— voted unanimously on a resolution honoring the Mansfield Senior High School football team, which recently concluded its 13-2 season with a loss in the Division III state championship game in Canton. It’s the first time a Mansfield team earned a spot in the state title game since post-season playoffs began in 1972. Several members of the team were in attendance to accept the honor.
— voted to approve resolutions honoring Bryant and Rock for their service on council. A resolution honoring Jefferson was pulled at his request.
— voted to establish council committee assignments for 2020-2021, including the following committee chairs: airport (Scott), Claims (to be determined), economic development (Davenport), employee relations (Taddie), Finance & Audit (Van Harlingen), municipal and public utilities (Lawrence), parks and recreation (Meier), public affairs (Taddie), rules (Falquette), safety (Scott), streets & traffic (Lawrence) and zoning (Van Harlingen).
— voted to elect Scott as council president pro-tempore for the next term.
— voted to hire Amy Yockey as the clerk of council and Vanessa Gingerich as assistant clerk of council.
— voted to appoint Falquette to the city’s historic preservation commission.’
— voted to appointMark Wilging to the city’s board of tax appeals.
— voted to accept a $10,788 grant from the Richland County Regional Solid Waste Management Authority for recycling and litter prevention.
— voted to accept a $100 donation from Daniel Mapes and Modern Woodman Fraternal Foundation to be used in the city’s parks and recreation department.
— voted to appropriate $61,151.07 from the unappropriated water fund to be used for fire hydrant inspections.
— voted to appropriate $441,000 from the unappropriated workers’ compensation fund to pay the 2020 workers’ compensation discounted premium before the new date of Dec. 23.
— voted to amend portions of Chapter 193 of the city’s codified ordinances to ensure compliance with state law and allow for proper continued taxation of retirement benefits.
— voted to authorize renewal of an agreement with Richland County commissioners for payment of counsel fees for indigent criminal defendants.
— voted to lease space at the Ocie Hill Neighborhood Center, 445 Bowman St., to Richland Pregnancy Services.
