DANVILLE — The Danville City Council will again consider setting the mayoral and treasurer salaries at its meeting Tuesday.
Discussions since March on these salaries have dominated recent meetings, leading the council to postpone the vote during its May 5 session.
At that time, accusations of political campaigning strayed into the discussion of mayoral salary with two of the members running for the spot of mayor — Ward 5 Alderman Doug Ahrens and Ward 7 Alderwoman Tricia Teague.
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. has presented the members with several documents he says back up the need to increase the salary to $130,000 by 2027. He especially highlights that although mayors in some cities similar to Danville may earn less, those cities often employ a city manager — an executive role whose salary is more comparable to the proposed amount for Danville’s mayor.
Teague and Ahrens have both taken stances against the increase to the current $110,000 salary. Teague has also said she plans to abstain from the vote since she is a current candidate. And despite Williams’ remarks during council meetings, he has yet to make a public declaration for running for mayor once again in 2027.
The mayor and treasurer salary do have to be set 6 months prior to the vote of mayor, which takes place in April 2027, which puts the salary deadline sometime in October 2026.
At this time there are four candidates officially running for mayor: Ahrens, Teague, Frank McCullough. and Dennis Witsman.
In past meetings council members have wanted to change the treasurer’s role to be appointed rather than voted into office. However, there are no agenda items indicating that change will happen Tuesday.
Council is also set to vote on an amendment to the Danville City Code Chapter 96, alcoholic liquor and video gaming, and will be approving applications for the Danville Fire Department FEMA grant funding and renewal of their IAMRESPONDING software; renewal of the ‘Darktrace Security Monitoring’; as well as a memorandum of understanding between the city of Danville, the Danville Police Department, the United States of Veteran Affairs, and the VA Illiana Healthcare System.