STRUTHERS Pay raises for officials receive initial reading

Council lacked the six votes needed for emergency passage.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- By a 5-2 vote, city council gave first reading to an ordinance that would give an immediate 10 percent pay increase to the mayor and various increases for other city officials.
Another special meeting to give the ordinance a second reading was set for 6:30 tonight, and council has its regular meeting scheduled for Monday.
Three readings are needed for passage unless six council members favor the measure and enact it as an emergency. Council has seven voting members, and the council president votes only to break a tie. For the raises to take effect, the ordinance must pass by Dec. 31 because state law prohibits raises being given to elected officials in midterm.
Opponents of measure
Voting against the ordinance Wednesday night were Councilman Daniel R. Yemma, D-3rd, who said he thought the mayor's initial raise was excessive, and Councilman Terry P. Stocker, D-4th, who said he wanted separate votes on the raises for the different city officials.
Councilman Dexter A. Hollen, D-at large, finance and legislation committee chairman, said he thought the raises were justified. He noted that the mayor hadn't had a raise since 2000 and said council typically has enacted the raises in one combined vote.
"I think they're fair raises, and I think they're consistent with what we've done for the other employees," Hollen said.
If the ordinance passes, the salary for Mayor Dan Mamula, who has just been re-elected to his fourth four-year term, will go from $34,500 to $37,950 annually, effective Jan. 1, 2004; $39,089 Jan. 1, 2005; $40,261 Jan. 1, 2006; and $41,468 Jan. 1, 2007.
The city auditor's pay would stay at $47,380, and the treasurer's would go from $9,000 to $10,000 a year beginning Jan. 1, 2004. The council president's salary will stay at $8,400 a year, and the other council members will remain at $8,500 annually.
The law director's pay would go from $30,182 to $31,087 effective Jan. 1, 2004; $32,020 Jan. 1, 2005; $32,981 Jan. 1, 2006; and $33,970 Jan. 1, 2007.
Parks meeting
In a meeting of the park and recreation committee immediately before the full council meeting, members discussed the recent announcement by Mill Creek MetroParks that Helena Uber, Yellow Creek Park manager, was being reduced from full-time to part-time status along with two MetroParks naturalists.
Yemma, the committee chairman, said MetroParks officials, with whom he met Tuesday, had convinced him that the cutback wouldn't adversely affect services delivered at the city's Yellow Creek Park, which the MetroParks system manages.
But Nancy Uber of Struthers, mother of the park manager, and Rosemary Sontich of Poland Township, formerly of Struthers, said they thought the park's public education function would suffer because of the cutback.
Sontich, a former owner of the 1920s vintage house in Yellow Creek Park, said she hopes MetroParks officials will preserve that structure, which the park manager will be moving out of next year.
MetroParks officials have said park employees will be moving out of park-owned houses in a cost-cutting move. Helena Uber has lived in the house rent-free for the 11 years she has been park manager.