Following an impassioned plea from former Burlington Mayor Shane McCampbell, the Burlington City Council voted 3-1 to institute a council pay raise.
Councilwoman Lynda Graham-Murray was not present during the vote of the third and final reading of the pay raise resolution Monday night. She had voted in favor of the pay raise during the first reading several weeks ago, then voted against it in the second reading.
Councilman Bill Maupin was the only council member to vote against the pay raise every time. The pay raise will not be instituted for another two years, meaning not every current council member may benefit, depending on future elections.
The pay raise would bring compensation more in line with other cities the size of Burlington. That means increasing the mayor’s salary from $6,600 a year to $10,000 a year. The salary of the council members would increase from $6,000 to $9,000 annually.
Instituting a pay raise was one of McCampbell’s final actions in the office late last year, though his term ended before the resolution could be brought to fruition. That finally happened Monday night.
“It (council pay) hasn’t been raised in two decades,” McCampbell said.
The last time was in 1997. Before then, council pay hadn’t been increased since 1981.
The new pay raise also institutes an automatic, annual salary increase beyond the initial income bump.
At the beginning of each fiscal year, the compensation will be adjusted by a percentage equal to the increase, if any, in the consumer price index for all urban consumers for the Midwest as determined by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If the consumer price index doesn’t go up, neither does the council pay. If it increases by a lot, the raises are still capped at 3 percent annually.
Though only Burlington resident Chris Roepke (who ran for council last year) spoke publicly against the measure Monday, council members have fielded mounting criticism about the pay raise on social media over the past two weeks.
McCampbell urged them not to give in to the online criticism.
“Now is not the time to run. Let’s handle this,” he said. “We don’t need people who fold under pressure.”
Even Roepke’s criticism wasn’t a blanket condemnation. He likes the idea of the initial raise, just not the rate at which it is adjusted in future years. He suggested the council pay go up a certain percentage based on the annual median household income in Burlington. Perhaps 15 percent.
“It the city does better, so does the city council,” Roepke said.