Girard City council postpones vote on pay ordinances

By SAMANTHA PHILLIPS

sphillips@vindy.com

GIRARD

City council members had proposed giving elected officials pay raises through a tiered system, but council President Reynold Paolone at Monday’s council meeting told members Law Director Brian Kren advised it isn’t legal.

Council voted to postpone voting on the ordinances to provide pay raises for the mayor, law director, city auditor, service director, president of council and council members until they had the full council present.

Councilmen William Ryser, Thomas Grumley and Mark Standohar and Kren were not in attendance Monday.

Council will discuss new salary figures for the elected officials at a finance committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday. Council members expect to vote on the proposed figures and other ordinances at a special council meeting at 7 p.m. that day, Councilman John Moliterno said.

Council had asked Kren to review the idea of a tiered system for elected officials’ pay raises at the last meeting.

The raises for the mayor, law director, city auditor, council president and council members are effective January 2020 because elected officials can’t have raises while currently serving a term.

The service director position is not an elected position so it is exempt from that rule.

Council had discussed giving raises to the administration incrementally over their four-year terms.

These increases were proposed to start January 2020 and end January 2023:

The city auditor’s salary was proposed to start at $47,127 and finish at $50,012.

The service director’s salary was proposed to start at $57,404 and finish at $60,917.

The law director’s salary was proposed to start at $35,001 and finish at $37,144 with health care benefits, or start at $42,029 and finish at $44,602 without health care benefits.

The mayor’s salary was proposed to start at $52,502 and finish at $55,715.

Council’s proposed raise would allow members to meet the minimum pay that qualifies public employees for the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System. The raise would be from about $633 a month to $660 a month, which would bring their annual salaries to $8,100. The council president would make $8,101.

Also on the council agenda was an ordinance to change the allocations of revenue from speed-camera citations. The proposed allocations are 50 percent to the general fund, 30 percent to the street construction fund, 7 percent to the recreation fund and 13 percent to the capital-improvement safety fund.

Another ordinance was to authorize the mayor to enter into the 2019 Community Housing Impact and Preservation Program in partnership with the cities of Niles and Hubbard with the Ohio Development Services Agency. The grant application must be submitted by May 3.