SHELBY, Ohio–After a number of amendments, Shelby City Council voted on Monday evening to freeze the wages of all elected officials for the years 2016 and 2017 in order to help the city’s General Fund get back on its feet.
Council passed Ordinance 1-2015 on Monday setting the salaries of the five members of council for the next two years, and the salaries of the mayor, finance director and law director for the next four years.
Councilmember Nathan Martin explained that the charter for the city of Shelby mandates that council set the salaries of elected officials in odd-numbered years.
“This isn’t something we woke up and said hey, I know we just passed this budget deal, now let’s give everybody a raise,” said Martin. “This is something that is mandated by charter we do. For that reason, whatever we decide as a council I will be voting for this. Not to say that I will be the happiest about it but I will vote for it because I believe that’s what the charter tells us we have to do; we have to pass this.”
Currently members of Shelby City Council earn $3,772; the mayor earns $57,029; the finance director earns $54,239; and the law director earns $44,440. For the year 2015 council received a 2.5 percent raise that was put in place by the council of 2013, not passed by the current-sitting members of council. The council of 2011 gave a 2.5 percent raise for the mayor, a 2.5 percent raise to the finance director, and a 5 percent raise to the law director.
An original amendment to the ordinance suggested by Councilmember Pat Carlisle read that the wages of the mayor, finance director and law director be frozen for only one year in 2016. Carlisle then proposed a 1 percent raise for the three positions in 2017, a 1.5 percent raise in 2018, and a 2 percent raise in 2019. This would only increase wages 4.5 percent for all three positions over four years, a combined total of approximately $7,200 more from the General Fund.
“In thinking on this particular piece of legislation, I continually asked myself what the citizens of Shelby could afford,” said Carlisle. “We are representatives, people elected us to these seats, so as their representative I want to be as conservative as possible fiscally, as close to the bone as I can possibly be to still provide us with leadership that is compensated but also leadership that the citizens feel is a fair price.”
All members of council initially accepted Carlisle’s amendments, but after the amendments were accepted Councilmember Harold Shasky suggested his own amendment. Shasky proposed that the wages of the mayor, finance director and law director were frozen in both 2016 and 2017.
“I don’t think freezing one year is enough, I think if we do it two years it’s more presentable to the public and gives our General Fund a chance to get back on its feet,” he said. “I don’t see how we can ask a large group of our residents to take a pay cut by taking their tax credit away then vote here tonight to give elected officials a raise.
“Common sense tells me with our General Fund continually shrinking we need to freeze all wages until the General Fund becomes healthy again without the transfer of funds from other accounts or taking more of the tax credit away.”
“From a political standpoint let’s put a zero for all four years – that would be the easy thing to do politically, but it’s not the intellectually honest thing to do,” countered Councilmember Nathan Martin. “I understand the sentiment, but we also have to talk about honestly what these people do for our city and the services they provide us. It’s easy to freeze all wages; but when it comes down to it when you have people in positions of power, we want them to be able to take care of their families as well.”
Shasky’s amendment froze wages for the mayor, law director and finance director in 2016 and 2017, and then increased all three wages by 2 percent in 2018 and 2.5 percent in 2019. This increases wages 4.5 percent for all three positions over four years, identical to Carlisle’s original amendment.
Council unanimously approved Shasky’s amendment. Under the amendment, the mayor will earn $59,624 by the year 2019, the law director $46,462, and the finance director $56,707.
Only the newest member of council, Councilmember-At-Large Steve McLaughlin, voted against the third reading and eventual passage of Ordinance 1-2015.
“I understand all the points in favor but at this point it’s not enough for me to support passing this,” said McLaughlin.
“Because of the way our charter is written we have to solve this issue tonight, so if we don’t pass a salary ordinance tonight we’re going to end up going to a special meeting to pass this,” explained Carlisle. “The decision has to be tonight.”
“I don’t see how we can ask a large group of our residents to take a pay cut by taking their tax credit away then vote here tonight to give elected officials a raise,” stated Harold Shasky.
