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Proposed raises die in committee, raising specter of Struthers politics
By Sarah Lehr
STRUTHERS
Struthers elected officials won’t get pay raises in 2016 after a proposed set of salary changes failed to make it out of committee.
The proposed raises, however, have touched a nerve among some in city government who say that pay hikes for elected officials have long been a politically charged issue in the city.
Michael Patrick, councilman at-large, took issue with the legislation brought before council at what he described as the 11th hour.
Before introduction of the proposed salary schedule by Councilman Tony Fire, D-1st, during a finance and legislation committee meeting last week, council had not formally seen the pay-raise legislation, Patrick said.
“Ramrodding it down with one meeting left till the end of the year is, to me, old-time politics,” Patrick said. “This is public service, not personal service. If you feel you need a raise ... we should have formal talks about it at an open meeting.”
The proposed ordinance included raises for the mayor, council members, law director and auditor effective Jan. 1.
Struthers budget for 2015 is $9.8 million with a $4.3 million general fund.
Typically, council votes on legislation after three readings. If council members wished to have the raises take effect Jan. 1, as proposed, they would have needed either to call a series of special meetings or to approve the legislation as an emergency Wednesday during the final regular council meeting this year.
After Patrick made his feelings known, council agreed to table the legislation.
Patrick said because council proposed the raises after the results of the November election became known, the raises appeared political.
Fire said though he did write and endorse the proposed salary ordinance, he was not alone in backing the raises. He said he brought the issue before the committee after other council members suggested he look into the pay issue.
“I just meant it as something for them to consider,” Fire said.
In retrospect, Fire said, he regrets the timing of the proposal. He added the proposed $500 bump for council members – from $8,000 to $8,500 – was a restoration, not a raise.
Council voted to have its pay docked by $500 per council member in 2013 when the city’s economic condition was less stable, officials said. With seven members of council and one president of council, the move would have saved the city $4,000 per year.
In developing the salary schedule, Fire said he meant to put the mayor’s pay on a level akin to the mayors of Girard and Salem.
Girard’s mayor earned $45,760 in 2015 and will earn $49,530 in 2016. In Salem, the mayor’s salary is $50,289 for 2015 and 2016.
Household median income in Struthers was $36,628 between 2009 and 2013, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Typically, Struthers council discusses wages in December, Mayor Terry Stocker said. He said he heard from council members that they were discussing raises for various officials among themselves, though Stocker said he did not see any specific numbers until last week’s committee meeting.
“I was taken by surprise,” Stocker said. “It’s my understanding that other administrators [included in the ordinance] were also surprised.”
Councilwoman Carol Crytzer, D-2nd, was among those who asked to table the proposed raises. She said she needed more time to consider the issue, but that she didn’t believe Fire had political motivations.
“I do realize it was the 11th hour,” she said. “Ultimately, I think there are more-important issues that we were elected to address.”
Councilman Robert Burnside, D-3rd, said he couldn’t speculate about the motivation behind the proposal, but he wished it was brought up months earlier.
“I didn’t have enough information,” Burnside said. “It’s my personal opinion that the $500 could be spent much better elsewhere.”
The raises have been tabled for now, but, for some, the issue calls to mind the city’s history of salary battles.
At times, those battles have been politically and personally charged, according to some officials.
In December 2007, under the administration of Mayor Dan Mamula, council voted to dock the pay for the auditor from $47,380 to $37,904, and for the incoming mayor from $41,470 to $33,904 beginning in 2008.
Since Stocker had won by the time of the vote, some city officials then described the measure as “punitive” and political,” according to Vindicator files.
The auditor and mayor’s salaries have since been restored, but Stocker said the 2007 move was “absolutely old-time politics.”
The professed argument that, as a newcomer, Stocker had less experience than Mamula and should therefore earn less was illogical, said Stocker, who had served 18 years on council by the time he was elected mayor.
Fire described the 2007 vote as a shameful example of dirty politics.
“It was a tribal, political move,” Fire said. “I can’t imagine it happening in any other city in the country, in the world.”
This term, council has revisited the idea of docking pay for incoming mayors, though, in every case, the proposals have failed to make it to the floor.
After the 2014 summer recess, Patrick floated the idea of docking pay for the incoming mayor to $35,939 in 2016.
At that time, Stocker, who ran as a write-in in November’s election after failing to file on time, had indicated he would not seek re-election, Patrick said.
Therefore, Patrick said, council believed there would be a new mayor. Patrick said there is merit to the argument that an elected official with less experience should be compensated less. Upon request, Burnside also presented a version of pay cuts for the 2016 mayor and auditor during committee in December 2014. Both proposals included the stipulation that council set salaries for elected officials before the May primary.
Stocker said he hadn’t heard of a 2016 pay-cut proposal, and that he thinks it’s inappropriate to base pay on whether an elected official is an incumbent.
Fire characterized the proposed 2016 pay cuts as akin to the 2007 decision.
“It was an atrocity back then and it’s an atrocity now,” he said.