DANVILLE — Proposed salary increases for elected officials in the City of Danville were postponed.
Following the executive session of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, members debated pay increases for over an hour, with much of it focused on proposed salary increases for certain elected officials.
The proposed $130,000 salary for the mayor was passionately debated.
“As far as the mayor’s salary goes, you know, I just provided you a little bit of information in essentially, these are always a contentious issue, right?” Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said. “You’re talking about it right before an election in here. I think one of the things we have to be really careful about is if you limit the compensation, you limit those who have the options that you have available in terms of who would be willing to apply for the job.”
Williams emphasized that the salary should be increased to keep ‘talented’ people in the role.
“I am requesting that we would start the 2027, mayor’s salary at the minimum, like we did for the other city position, with a small rounding down to $130,000 a year, and then give him or her. It might be someone else. It may be one of you that’s elected for this position a 3% raise each year,” Williams said. “And the bottom line is, if we want to recruit talented people to do this job, we cannot pay them an unreasonable salary.”
Alderman Doug Ahrens and Tricia Teague spoke out against increasing the mayor’s salary.
“I don’t believe there should be a public position that exists in a six-figure salary range that does not have accountability,” Ahrens said. “If a mayor can take the job and win a popularity contest — and collect a $130,000 salary and not show up for work — as long as there is no accountability other than waiting four years until the next election, that’s not accountability.”
Teague proposed removing the discussion of salaries in executive session at the start of the meeting, stating that discussing elected officials’ compensation was in violation of the Open Meeting Act, and the public had a right to see the proposed increases.
“The last time we had this discussion in 2022, it was actually publicly available, if I recall correctly, and therefore the public had an opportunity to express their opinion,” Teague said.
Alderman Jon Cooper also spoke out against the increase, stating the trajectory for the increase, “2023, this job paid 75,000… on 2030 you’re wanting to make this up to 142,000, which is damn near 100%.”
Alderman Eve Ludwig supported the increase, citing the things Williams does for the city.
“We have to compare the scope and responsibility,” Ludwig said. “And when you look at what Mayor Williams does as mayor, the scope and responsibility is the same as… a mayor… and the deputy manager for these positions. So that’s why it’s all put together as a total executive compensation in that fifth column. So we have to look at it that way. That’s the only way to do apples to apples.”
Ludwig also added that the increase is the best move for the city.
“Increasing the mayoral salary will serve to encourage qualified candidates to put their hat in the ring, because they will be compensated properly for their immense responsibility as mayor,” Ludwig said. “How does it make sense that the mayor, who is the head executive leader of the city of Danville, has 22 city employees that he oversees [who] are paid more than him? It’s my opinion that raising the mayor’s salary to 130,000 in 2027 is more than appropriate, and it’s fair and equitable, and it’s in the city’s best interest.”
Williams brought up data from other similar positions, but Teague still did not support the increase.
“To me, the data, when you compare apples to apples, does not support increasing the mayor’s salary by $20,000,” Teague said. “We are on a trajectory right now where the mayor gets an increase of $5,000 every year… I do think a $20,000 increase, especially when it was just $75,000 not that long ago.”
Teague also added that she didn’t see the need for more money when many in Danville are struggling.
“We have 65% of our people who are one disaster away of losing everything, but we’re going to give the mayor an additional $20,000,” Teague said. “It just doesn’t make sense… even if I was the mayor, I would say it was too much money.”
Council ultimately tabled the discussion and made no changes to salary increases. They do have to vote on a salary for the position six months prior to the election, but that election will not take place until April 6, 2027.