Beaumont City Council met for its weekly meeting Tuesday, March 14 in the Council Chambers at Beaumont City Hall.
Courtney Pedersen/The Enterprise
Beaumont Enterprise
Courtney Pedersen, Staff writer
The Beaumont City Council will not raise future members' salaries.
During its quarterly evening meeting Tuesday, the council was set to vote on increasing its salaries for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The vote would have doubled the pay of the mayor to $1,000 per month and increased the salary of council members to $900 per month. It was denied unanimously after the council pulled it out of the consent agenda on Tuesday for a separate vote.
At-large Council member Randy Feldschau moved to deny the item, with a second from Ward II Council member Mike Getz.
At-large Council member Albert “AJ” Turner said before the vote that Beaumont's residents should be able to weigh in on whether or not the council members deserve a raise.
“Just because we have the authority to do it doesn't necessarily mean we need to do it,” Turner said. “I think we should do things in decency and honor and let the citizens weigh in on how they feel about this.”
Feldschau said he wants council to have more time to research the issue and decide if the catch up in salary should be done all at once or in increments.
Prior to the vote during public comment, Beaumont resident Dylan Richardson spoke out against the proposed salary increases
“I find it laughable that you can ask for a raise when you’re not allocating the proper benefits and union representation for the EMTs and paramedics to save lives and your city,” Richardson said.
The council's base salaries have not been increased since 1985, when members voted to increase the salary of the mayor to $500 per month instead of $150 per month and the council members to $400 from $100.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Inflation Calculator, when the salary increase ordinance was signed into place in January 1985 $500 was equivalent to $1,430.50 today.
The new annual compensation for council would have been:
Mayor
- $12,000 base pay
- $15,600 administrative allowance
- $8,400 auto allowance
- Total -- $36,000
Mayor Pro-Tem
- $10,800 base pay
- $11,400 administrative allowance
- $8.400 auto allowance
- Total -- $30,600
Council members
- $10,800 base pay
- $8,400 administrative allowance
- $8,400 auto allowance
- Total -- $27,600
The new salary would have taken effect during the next term of office.