DANVILLE — A raise for the Danville mayor was highly debated for weeks, now will alderman also receive a raise?
During Tuesday’s Danville City Council Meeting, those aldermen debated the merits of a pay raise and if it should be tied to attendance.
“I know when we discussed it previously … I was proposing attendance, because it makes an increase in pay more palatable for the citizens,” Ward 4 Alderman Tricia Teague said.
“For me, it was a give-and-take. It was let’s give the alderman more money to be able to stimulate more participation in city government from other people because many of our aldermanic seats are unopposed every single election,” Teague said. “So, if we actually increase pay, we might actually get more people running for these seats.”
However, most aldermen and Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. were against any raise.
“I believe you were the only one who has proposed changing of the salary, and in fact, many of the aldermen spoke against changing and increasing the salary,” Williams said.
“We take this position or elected to this position to serve, and we should serve,” Ward 2 Alderman Carolyn DeToye said. “It’s not about our pocketbooks, and I am not for any kind of raise… It bothers me a little bit that we’re even discussing pay, because to me it shouldn’t be about pay. It should be about service.”
Ward 3 Alderman Sharon Pickering disagrees with tying attendance to pay.
“I would say we’ve been very, very fortunate in our last four to six years that our attendance has been good,” Pickering said. “I do remember when we had people that maybe would show up at meetings three times a year.”
There was also discussion of how to make the attendance policy work for those who are unable to attend.
“We can certainly take everything that you all have provided into consideration, make some adjustments, and then bring that to committee for further discussion,” Williams said.
“The main reason why I brought up brought up pay is because in the analysis that I did at the same time that I was analyzing the mayor’s salary, I was also analyzing aldermen’s salary,” Teague said. “And when you compare us to all of the other cities that are just like ours, we have the lowest pay. And also, if I recall correctly, when we increased the pay two or four years ago, whenever it was, was the first pay increase in over 20 years.”
Teague said she does not need a pay increase — she was just adamant that if the mayor’s salary is raised, aldermen should be as well.
The mayoral salary raise to $130,000 was approved in March.
Williams said the decision would have to be finalized by Oct. 8 for it to take effect in the next election.