THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110308
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 63 lines
After a decade with no raises, the City Council and Mayor William E. Ward are poised to give themselves $10,000 annual increases tonight.
If approved, the salary increases will be the largest for elected officials in Chesapeake's history.
Under the proposed ordinance, council members' annual salaries would rise from $13,000 to $23,000. Mayor Ward's pay would increase from $15,000 to $25,000.
That is the maximum Chesapeake officials can make under state law, which limits local council salaries based on population.
The changes would amount to a 77 percent raise for council members and a 67 percent increase for the mayor. The salary increase would be their first since 1986 and work out to about a 6 percent increase each year over the past 10 years for council members and about 5.7 percent each year for the mayor.
The proposal comes after the General Assembly amended the state code to allow cities to increase the salaries of mayors and council members.
Chesapeake is not alone.
Norfolk's City Council took advantage of the amended law on May 21 when approving its operating budget.
On July 1, when the new budget kicks in, Mayor Paul D. Fraim's salary will increase from $20,000 to $25,000. Norfolk City Council members' salaries will increase from $18,000 to $23,000 annually.
In Suffolk, the pending operating budget proposes $10,000 raises for both Mayor S. Chris Jones and the City Council, according to the city's finance director.
Jones' salary would rise from $10,000 annually to $20,000 if the budget is passed unchanged; council members' salaries would increase from $8,000 to $18,000.
Portsmouth and Virginia Beach mayors and councils have not discussed increasing their salaries, officials in those cities said.
Chesapeake's proposed raises are expected to be debated and may be reduced, according to one council member and the city staff. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall's council chambers.
In 1986, Chesapeake's council increased members' yearly pay from $8,000 to $13,000. The mayor's salary was raised from $10,000 to $15,000. When the city was founded in 1963, both the mayor and council members made $200 a month.
Supporting documents provided to the council indicate that its responsibilities have increased since 1986.
Chesapeake's population has grown 39 percent and spending in the operating budget has increased 179 percent, according to the city's figures.
Councilman W. Joe Newman, the only council member to return phone calls about the raises on Monday, said he was unsure how he would vote.
City Clerk Dolores A. Moore said the money for the raises would likely come from the council's contingency fund, and the increases would be effective on July 1.
Raises for the council and mayor were never discussed during any council debates over the recently passed operating and capital budgets, Moore confirmed. ILLUSTRATION: [SALARY GRAPHIC]
[See microfilm for graphic]
KEYWORDS: CITY COUNCIL SALARIES by CNB