Increasing compensation for City Council members may have been defeated last fall, but it is very much alive for next year’s budget cycle.
At the regular meeting May 25, the Taylor City Council approved moving forward with the creation of a committee to come up with recommendations to increase compensation for the city’s elected leaders.
“I think this is perfect timing with the budget going on,” said At-large Councilman Dwayne Ariola. “During the compensation discussion late last year, pretty much it was a consensus by the constituents, 100 percent, that we all deserve, that the positions deserve more, with the time considerations.”
Last fall, Ordinance 2022-43, which would have raised the pay for city leaders from $25 dollars to $1,200 per month for council members, and from $25 to $1,500 month for the mayor’s position, was defeated 3-2 after an outcry from citizens who complained that they were left out of the process.
At the meeting, Deputy City Manager Jeff Jenkins said this was good timing to move forward with the committee, which would provide council with a recommendation for the amount of an increase.
“With the budget going on right now, this would be the perfect time to look this over and see what you would like to do,” Jenkins said. “Staff made a suggestion ... maybe have council members each select maybe one person to be on the committee, and then we would definitely recommend to set a maximum number of meetings, either two or three meetings, three at the most, the reason being … you can find all different methods to compensate, so it could go on endlessly.”
The timeline for this process would be that the council members select appointments during the June city council meeting, that the first committee meeting be held in late June or early July and a final recommendation made by the end of the summer, Jenkins added.
Ariola, who voted against the pay raise along with District 4 Councilman Robert Garcia and District 2 Councilman Mitch Drummond, said he requested that the meetings be held publicly, and that citizens communication be allowed for input in the process.
“Not one citizen said we weren’t worthy of a pay raise,” Ariola said. they just wanted to be able to set the pay raise, he said.
Ariola said he concurred that three meetings should be sufficient to come up with a recommendation.
Council members joked that the process was unlikely to be easy.
“Whomever is on the committee, I hope you don’t mind us giving out your email address and phone number, so you can sustain all the questions for us,” quipped District 4 Councilman Robert Garcia.
Jenkins said the committee will review surveys and other community data on compensation, Jenkins said.
A list of names will be brought to the next meeting June 8, officials said.
