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| Raises Approved for Abingdon's Elected Officials |
After more than a decade, Abingdon's elected officials are getting raises.
The city council, during a special session Monday night, unanimously agreed to give raises to the mayor, city clerk, the treasurer and aldermen. The council had to hold the special meeting and agree to the raises by the end of this week in order for them to take effect in May.
The item that took the longest for the city council to hash out was the city clerk's pay and benefits. Aldermen last week separated the clerk and collector positions, both jobs in the past have been the responsibility of the city clerk. The clerk currently makes $18,000 a year, plus another $5,300 as the collector. The city council bumped the clerk's pay up to $26,000 plus insurance, with 80 percent of the premium paid by the city.
One city council member in particular did her homework. Melissa Johnson looked at four nearby communities to see what their elected officials make, and Johnson tells WGIL one of the towns pays in line with what Abingdon pays.
"I checked out other cities. Knoxville, Galva, Bushnell and Galesburg. Bushnell came to be most like our community because of the way that they're structuring their government...their city clerk has a lot of the same responsibilities as our city clerk does. It is a full-time position with benefits, and I feel that's what our city clerk deserves because she takes on the same responsibilities."
The other raises are $3,000 dollars a year for the treasurer, who currently makes $1,600, $2,500 annually for the mayor, an increase of $1,200 a year, and aldermen will earn $1,300 a year, or $50 for each of the 24 regularly scheduled meetings and two special meetings. Aldermen are making $30 a meeting now.
The city council said raises had not been given to the elected officials since the 1980's.
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| 10 27 08 by Newsroom |
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