Friday, December 2, 2016

City-County Council to Consider Doubling their Base Salary


Prop 446 will be introduced at Monday night's City-County Council meeting.

This proposal, authored by Councillor Monroe Gray and listed on the agenda as co-sponsored by Council Vice President Zach Adamson, would raise the base salary of Councillors from 12% of the Mayor's base salary - or $11,400 / year - to $25,000 / year.  All other items of compensation, like per diem money for attending Council meetings ($112 / mtg) and Council committee meetings ($62 / mtg; max 40 mtgs) would remain the same.  Also left unchanged would be the additional compensation for serving as President ($1982 / year), VP ($1320 / year), or as a Chair of a committee ($797 / year).

Quick math shows that this would increase the total Council salary by at lease $340,000, exclusive of the additional employer paid taxes.

Prop 446 will be assigned to the Admin & Finance Committee, which next meets December 13 at 5:30 pm in room 260 of the City-County Building.

It might be time to discuss altering the Councillor positions themselves.  Full time positions would certainly pose benefits to the community.  However, the number of full time Councillor positions and adequate Councillor compensation for full time work would need considerable discussion and reflection.



References:
Indianapolis code -  section 192-101 - compensation of the mayor 

and

section 192-102 - compensation of councillors