Pay increase for council, mayor on tonight’s agenda

A salary hike for the mayor and city councilmembers is on tonight’s agenda.

City Manager Rick Horst is proposing the change, saying it is important “that elected official enumeration remain in line with other similarly situated cities in order to attract qualified candidates for office.”

Currently, councilmembers earn $18,000 a year and the mayor receives $23,000. The proposal being considered tonight raises the council salary to $23,000, a 27.7% increase, and the mayor to $35,000, a 52% hike. The last increase went into effect in 2017.

Horst drew comparisons to Casa Grande, Queen Creek and others. While the compensation of Maricopa officials currently trails Queen Creek by 20%, it is double the pay of Casa Grande councilmembers.

The proposed increases will put City of Maricopa compensation more in line with Flagstaff, which has about 20,000 more people.

“Today, more than ever before, we need highly qualified individuals to manage a diverse range of matters that requires time, study, availability and effort unmatched,” Horst stated in his proposal.

He spelled out three “inhibitors” that prevent highly qualified people from running for office:

• The office is a lot of work for little to no pay and lots of stress.
• Social media has opened the floodgates for increased public scrutiny and “hyper-intense” negativity aimed at candidates and sitting public officials…information is often unfounded, but believed, that can create consequences for the person, their family or their employment.
• People have to take time out of the lives to fill a public service role, time away from family and often time away from their employment that may affect their ability to provide for their families.

Freshly elected Amber Liermann, who will not take office until Dec. 1, said she needs to learn more about the resolution. Compensation, she said, did not play a part in her decision to run for council.

“I had no idea there was any financial compensation,” she said. “I thought it was a volunteer position. Afterwards, I was like, ‘Wow.’”

When Maricopa incorporated, councilmembers made $1,000 a month. With the exception of a couple years during the recession when they voted to decrease their pay 38%, the annual salary remained at $12,000 a year until the 2017 increase.

Tonight’s agenda also includes a truck-traffic study, which notes heavy use of Smith-Enke Road to White and Parker Road to reach Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway from State Route 347.

Among several items on the consent agenda is the adoption of the General Election canvass.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall.