LOWELLVILLE Council salaries to rise by 175%

State law forbids midterm pay increases.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LOWELLVILLE -- Salaries of village council members will increase by 175 percent and the mayor's salary will rise 33 percent under an ordinance approved Wednesday.
The raises will be effective Jan. 1 for the new mayor and two council members. The remaining four council members will not get them until 2006, after their current terms have expired.
Ohio law forbids elected officials from getting midterm raises.
Council's pay will go from $1,200 to $3,300 per year, and the part-time mayor's salary will go from $3,600 to $4,800 per year.
Five councilmen voted in favor of suspending the normal three readings and bringing up the ordinance as an emergency measure: Keith McCaughtry, Robert Coppola, James Alfano, William Flora and James Iudiciani.
The raises passed with four votes, with Iudiciani dissenting. Councilman Ron Rotunno was absent.
Mayor's comments
"The proposed salary increases for council and the mayor is an extremely serious issue since the taxpayers' moneys would be expended without just cause, without value and without accountability,'' Mayor Joseph Rossi said.
"It just isn't right. No councilman is entitled to $3,300 for one meeting a month," he added.
The mayor said he won't seek re-election this year.
The increase percentages are large because council hasn't enacted any raises for a long time, Coppola said. "They definitely do a lot of work," he said of the council members, adding they are responsible for overseeing the spending of more than $1.7 million a year.
"I believe it's long overdue," said McCaughtry, adding that council members haven't had a raise in 11 years.
"You're going to put this town really in a hole. Your job is only part time. That raise is outrageous," said former Councilman James Bisconti.