[RP TownTalk] Mayor and Council Salaries

[Rob Oppenheim]

People do not serve on the council for the money. Yet money matters. 
Council members have to be able to afford to dedicate time to the job. 
 
As an example, along with many evenings and weekends, I set aside 
Mondays (all day each week) to work on town issues. 
 
I like to be positive about our town. If I were to be fully honest, I think 
the town is worse off now than 12 years ago, and we are facing serious, 
challenges ahead. The mayor cannot do this alone. A good, creative, 
hard working council is critical to bringing us back and to move us forward. 
 
My proposal is not based on inflation, rather on what it will take to move 
the town forward. I first suggested a cap of $600/month with pay based 
on participation (meaning some would get significantly less). I got shot 
full of holes on that, so I backed off to $450/month. Frankly, I doubt if 
even that will pass. 
 
-Rob
 
P.S. Regarding Inflation and what other towns pay ...
>... So, this would be quite a raise, not simply a Cost of Living adjustment.
True. But not as much as it might look at first glance. Arguably the RP 
council was underpaid in 1995 when it was last changed.
 
Back in 1991, Hyattsville started paying $250/mo. In 2004, College Park 
started paying $367/mo. Adjust their rates for inflation and project to 2007 
and you get about $440/month**. Also consider that these are much larger 
towns and have a lot more staff to support the Mayor and Council. 
(And they have a larger tax base to afford it too).
  
**Any pay change will become effective in 2007, so figure 12 years of inflation 
for RP and 16 years for Hy. I used the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for state 
and local government workers,
Ref: http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/blsec/ecu11113i 
ECI for Hy at 16 years is about 76% = $440, 
ECI for RP at 12 years is about 50% = $300 
ECI for CP at 3.5 years is about 14% = $420.
 
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