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Greensboro City Council getting raises

Note: An earlier version of this post contained the wrong salaries, based on inaccurate information in the City Council handbook. The current numbers are accurate.

Greensboro City Council members will be getting a raise on Jan. 1 thanks to action their predecessors took in 2005.

In her weekly "Items for Your Information" packet to council members (link), Acting Manager Denise Turner included a memo from Compensation Manager Joseph Marro that outlined the changes.

Marro recapped an Aug. 16, 2005 council resolution that set an annual increase for council member salaries at "up to 50 percent of the salary increase amount recommended for staff."

In the years when city employees didn't get any raises, the council members' salaries stayed the same.

Raises for city workers were included in this year's budget, which took effect July 1. "Therefore, effective January 1, 2012, Mayor and Council will receive a 0.75% pay adjustment this fiscal year (equal to 50% of the average budgeted merit increase)," wrote Marro.

The current annual salaries for the council are:

Mayor: $15,233
Mayor Pro Temp: $12,796
Council member: $11,576

With the 0.75 percent bump, those annual compensation figures will go to:

Mayor: $15,347
Mayor Pro Temp: $12,891
Council member: $11,662

Council members also get a $150 monthly expense allowance.

For comparison purposes, rank-and-file members of the North Carolina General Assembly make $13,951 per year, albeit with more generous allowances for expenses and for those in leadership positions (link).

Salaries for state legislators haven't gone up since 1994 because it is a politically toxic issue. The Greensboro Council resolution is similar to a mechanism used by Congress, in which federal lawmakers annual salaries rise without lawmakers having to take any specific action.

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Tags: Greensboro, city council, salary, raises

Posted by Mark Binker on Monday, December 26, 2011 at 10:43 am

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oh good grief

December 26, 2011 - 12:41 pm EST

The City of Greensboro runs on a fiscal year of July 1 - June 30. The City Council(s) do not sit for the City’s “fiscal” year. The City Council(s) do not, in fact, sit for a “calendar year” (i.e., January 1 through December 31).

So I have the following questions regarding the “increase” in City Council salaries.

"Raises for city workers were included in this year's budget, which took effect July 1. "Therefore, effective January 1, 2012, Mayor and Council will receive a 0.75% pay adjustment this fiscal year (equal to 50% of the average budgeted merit increase)," wrote Marro."

???? "which took effect July 1."????? -- Were the former council members not receiving the raise????

"Therefore, effective January 1, 2012, Mayor and Council will receive a 0.75% pay adjustment this fiscal year . . . ."

????Does that mean "more" pay adjustment on top of any "pay adjustment" the previous council (may have) received????

"According to the current City Council Handbook, which was revised on Nov. 28, 2011 [emphasis on that date], the current annual compensation for the council is:

Mayor: $14,804
Mayor Pro Temp: $12,435
Council member: $11,250"

????So, were those figures in the (revised) November 28, 2011, City Council Handbook being paid to former Mayor Knight and the other former City Council members???? And if not, why not????

"With the 0.75 percent bump, those annual compensation figures will go to:

Mayor: $14,915.03
Mayor Pro Temp: $12,528.26
Council member: $11,334.38"

????So, are the "new" mayor and City Council members getting a raise on top of a raise by any chance????

Mark Binker

December 26, 2011 - 1:08 pm EST

I think the double-raise theory would require a rather tortured reading of that memo and the relevant statues.

Also, the current salaries council make are the same as they were three years ago.

oh good grief

December 26, 2011 - 1:41 pm EST

The "current salaries . . .same as . . . three years ago" answers one of my questions.

Mark Binker

December 26, 2011 - 1:09 pm EST

And simply because a government (or any business really) runs on a fiscal year does not mean all salary changes are effective on that date. Typically, most employees get raises on the anniversary of their hire date or the date of their last promotion.

oh good grief

December 26, 2011 - 1:45 pm EST

"Typically, most employees get raises on the anniversary of their hire date or the date of their last promotion" is probably true in most government and private sector employment, but a date of January 1, 2012, appears to be "pulled out of a hat" to me.

Mark Binker

December 26, 2011 - 1:50 pm EST

I don't know about that. Some pretty logical arguments for the date occur. If nothing else, it's the beginning of a new year and roughly a month after the new council was sworn in.

Leonard

January 2, 2012 - 5:22 pm EST

It's my understanding that "regular" city employees were given their performance reviews at their normal time in 2011 based on their hiring date. But if they were awarded any merit increase, it was not effective until January 1, 2012. So it appears they are doing the same for the Council.