Committee suggests tripling the Salisbury mayor’s salary

A committee is working to put more money into the pocket of Salisbury's Mayor.

According to city council members, Mayor Jake Day believes a pay raise is not a good idea. 

The Salary Review Committee has a specific job. Kim Gillis, the Chair of the Salary Review Committee said, "So every four years, the mayor has to appoint a committee to review the salary of the mayor and the city council members and make a written recommendation to the city council 6 months prior to the next election on what the salary of the mayor and city council should be."

This year, the committee is suggesting tripling the mayor's salary from $25,000 to $75,000 and increasing the rest of the council member's pay by 18%.

Many of the Salisbury City Council members seemed to be on board with a pay increase. Jack Heath, the President of the Salisbury City Council, said, "I think that what I'm hearing from the council other council members is that there's probably a number between 25 and 75 that makes sense."

Those council members said, however, that the mayor has a particular issue with a pay raise. Heath said, "One of the concerns that the mayor has is that it may attract somebody that just wants to do it for the money."

On the other hand, most council members believe that the pros outweigh the cons in this case.

Heath said, "The position is obviously very important to the city. We can see what the current mayor has done and I think the pay should be commensurate with the responsibility."

Overall, the council did not reach a consensus regarding the issue at Monday night's council meeting, so another work session will be held in the coming weeks to further discuss the issue.

Heath said, "There will be another work session where we will talk about it. The good news is we've done this early enough that the election is far away so it's not a political issue it's really a compensation issue that we have to tackle."

Mayor Jake Day could still play an important role in all this because he does have the power to veto legislation. 

We will follow this story and keep you updated on what council will do going forward.