Thursday, October 25, 2007
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS — Proposed 20 percent pay cuts for incoming Mayor Terry P. Stocker and Auditor Tina Morell raised the ire of many of the estimated 75 people who crowded into city council chambers.
Council voted 5-2 Wednesday to move the legislation to a second reading. Three readings are required for passage.
Councilman Daniel R. Yemma said he proposed the legislation because he believes the mayor’s salary of $41,467 is excessive, whether it be for outgoing Mayor Daniel Mamula or Stocker.
Yemma, who was acting president of council at Wednesday’s meeting replacing Anthony J. Protopapa Jr., who was absent, said he had voted against Mamula receiving a raise. He said his reasons for trying to include the mayor and auditor in a system used for other new department heads in the city was neither personal or political. That system calls for paying them 80 percent of the salary of the person they replace, and then granting 10 percent increases over time.
The reasons are fiscal and financial responsibility if the city is to remain solvent, said Yemma, who will be a councilman at-large beginning in January.
Yemma said he has been consistent in trying to keep wages under control, and noted that both he and Stocker voted against Mamula’s last raise four years ago.
Stocker argued against lowering the mayor’s salary, beginning next year, to $33,174.
“I should be allowed to enjoy the amenities of the office. If the situation was reversed [meaning if Mamula had won election], we would not be talking about a decrease. We’d be talking about an increase,” Stocker said.
The auditor’s salary would be cut from $47,380 to $37,904, if the legislation passes.
Morell didn’t argue against the ordinance in principle.
“I think Dan Mamula has been a good mayor. I’m sorry we didn’t have a better working relationship. But I don’t want to argue anymore. If this is the time council wants to install language to lower the wages of incoming officials, then put it in,” she said.
She urged council, however, not to freeze wages at the incremental levels for four years. Instead, allow them to increase each year as they do for department heads, Morell said.
Mamula said he lived with what council did with his salary, even through he didn’t always agree with it. “You run for the office, not the money,” he said.
Many people in the audience spoke on the issue, most favoring keeping the mayor and auditor salaries as they are.
Treasurer Constance Shaffer also weighed in on the debate.
She said if council should wish to apply the 80 percent guideline to the position of mayor then it should apply to all newly elected positions.
She argued that Morell is not an new incoming official, and Yemma’s rational comes apart with respect to Morell for that reason.
alcorn@vindy.com