With revenues waning at the Green Frog Inn and property taxes going through the roof it just makes sense for King Henry to get a raise.
Mayor Graham Richard already appears to be the highest-paid mayor in Indiana, but a new proposal would give Mayor-elect Tom Henry even more cash to run the city next year.
The Fort Wayne City Council will be asked to boost the mayor’s salary from $120,000 this year to $130,000 next year, although several on the council said it’s unlikely to be approved.
Richard last year asked the council to approve a pay raise bringing his 2007 salary to $135,000, from $104,504. Richard did not receive a raise in 2006. The council voted 6-3 to raise the salary to $120,000 after many expressed concern with a larger pay raise.
Even before that raise, Richard made more money than Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and Gov. Mitch Daniels – both earn $95,000.
[...]
Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, said that while he doesn’t have a problem with Fort Wayne employing the highest-paid mayor in the state, he said the mayor shouldn’t be getting larger raises than other city workers.
“The mayor’s an employee just like anyone else,†he said.
Members of the council and the city clerk would get a 3 percent raise under the proposal, the same amount given to non-union city employees.
Councilman Sam Talarico, R-at-large, said he supports the proposal because the mayor of the state’s second-largest city needs to make a fair salary.
[...]
Talarico, who did not seek re-election this year, said the salary is fair when compared with other public-sector jobs around the county. The superintendents of the county’s four public school districts, the director of Fort Wayne International Airport and the director of the Allen County Public Library all make more than the mayor.
There’s nothing analogous between the mayor’s office and any of the aforementioned.
Even with his support, Talarico said it was unlikely a majority of the council would back the $10,000 increase.
We can only hope.
DT
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Looks like the annexation of SW and increased property taxes has its payoffs…
That’s just one more bit of news that’s going to anger the public… they keep getting screwed with taxes and the politicians keep making more $$.
Now I am just tossing this out there. Maybe the ole Frog lost ten grand gross profit and Mayor Richard is trying to make it up to the new Mayor. Maybe if he gets the deal he will not allow the repeal of the smoking ban go into effect.
Just some brain damaged thoughts…….
Here’s my problem with the raise: both Henry and Kelty ran for office knowing the salary in advance should they win. Why up the ante now? The more appropriate time would have been when the budget was submitted. I’ve heard the argument that this amount is needed to attract qualified candidates to public office. It certainly doesn’t seem to be the case here. Seems more akin to blessing an existing McDonald’s with tax abatements in the name of economic development, rather than safeguarding the public’s money.
The scenario is perfect for Henry in that Richard is initiating the request and Henry can say he doesn’t have anything to with it. But I can’t help thinking, isn’t this really a raise for Sam Talarico when he runs for Mayor in 4-years. He could vote for it before the end of the year, his candidate will benefit, and when he takes office in 2012, he can say it was Graham Richard that initiated the pay raise and he is just subject to it.
I do agree with Sam’s point however that the Fort Wayne Mayor shouldn’t be punished because the market doesn’t support higher salaries for the Governor and the Mayor of Indiana’s largest city.
On the other hand, I don’t think folks running for Mayor are ever doing it for the money. I’m not sure I’d want a guy where being Mayor was the best paying job he ever had in his career.
Sam T. is acting more and more like a Democrat every day. Stick the taxpayers to pay higher salaries with no other benefit other than to make sure our new mayor’s pay is “fair”. I can only ask: “Fair to whom?”
$120,000 was ok for Mayor-elect Henry before the election … so why does this single governmental salary require an increase? All those folks running for council were not taken aback by those salary levels either.
The real world is not “fair” as Matt Kelty can attest, so yet another overuse of the fairness excuse is sooo insulting. Come to think about it, these planned increases are one of the reasons that my property tax increase was 22%. Now that is really “unfair”.
I don’t know what offends me more about this:
#1–A week after the election and 2 and half months after the budget is approved I’m supposed to think the election never played a part in the timing at all?
#2–To Quote from the U-Gazette: “The superintendents of the county’s four public school districts, the director of Fort Wayne International Airport and the director of the Allen County Public Library all make more than the mayor.”–Has anyone considered that they’re all over paid?
#3–Councilman Sam Talarico, R-at-large: “You don’t want people running for office simply for the pay, (but) you do want the pay to be high enough to attract candidates. I certainly think $130,000 is fair.”–Can’t speak for Sam but he seems to imply that anyone making less is unqualified for mayor. Or, you’d have to be an idiot to risk your career for less than $130,000 like Kelty did.
#4–Talarico said it’s unfair to compare local public salaries with others around the state, saying the governor and mayor of Indianapolis are underpaid and Fort Wayne shouldn’t be punished by the lack of pay for those positions.–Or, we really are just a bunch of gullible morons like that magazine suggested last year. How about we hold the elected officials responsible like CEO’s in a corporation? That’s right, we’d probably owe them more money.
Here’s the perfect opportunity for Henry to curb spending. Rather than accept the $10,000 raise he could decline it, thus asserting a commitment to control property tax increases. Afterall, it is the Fort Wayne taxpayer who will pay the bill.
Simply put, Fort Wayne needs to focus on curbing it’s public spending, reduce bank bonds from the state, become independent in Fort Wayne and willing to finance local development privately…with zero cap on
property tax owners!
What does the board/committee members vote locally, more importantly what would the public vote for given a public ballot referendum?
Bobett-
If every election is a referendum. I do not believe Indiana allows ballot initiatives or referendums. This is business as usual, Republicans for Henry supported it, and the majority of Fort Wayne voters voted for it.
I think I read on this blog, “People don’t get the Government they deserve, they get the Government they vote for.”
You got it!
Dan,
I think the current salary for the mayor is fair and fine. The reason for my quote, is I have never quite understood how a person gets paid more for running the Coliseum (Randy Brown) than the mayor gets paid for running the city. Also, how does the director of the library make more than the mayor? Doesnt make a lot of sense to me, but at end of the day, the mayor’s pay (with or without the raise) is a very fair salary for the position.
Remember, the most important reason for the mayor’s salary to be at an appropriate level is because you can not pay department heads more than the mayor, so in order to attract good department heads you need to make sure that the mayor’s salary is at an appropriate level.
Tom,
I can see how you took my quote that way. I did not intend it to come out in that fashion. My only point is that setting the salary is a balancing act. You do not want the pay to be the REASON for people to seek the office and you dont want it to be a barrier for people to consider leaving private sector jobs that, in some cases, might pay more.
I agree 100%, there are all kinds of quality candidates for mayor in this community, most of which probably make less than the current mayor’s salary.
Dont forget that the Mayor’s job is a 24 hour a day job with incredible amounts of stress. Can you imagine going to bed in the middle of a rain storm and waking up the next morning to find the city in a flood crisis. A very small portion of our population deal with this sort of work stress on a daily basis. If you are Mayor, the city must always come first in front of family and yourself. It is a very tough job and deserving of appropriate level of pay.
As I said, before, I think $123,000 is fine and I think that is what the salary will end up being when the $10,000 is rejectted.
Been there…said that…(yesterday). Thank the maker no one ever READS my blog (they might LEARN something)….plus, my picture was funnier.
(talk amongst yourselves)
B.G.
(more politically INcorrect than is humanly allowed by nature)
I work for the city, can I expect the same 8.4% raise?
The Green Frog is a bar and bars in Fort Wayne are becoming scarce. Tom is calling for an extention to the option for the OmniSource property. The Miami Indians have recently been organizing in the Fort Wayne area. The public debt load continues to rise at an astronomical rate. More debt is planned with the expected acquisition of a couple of utility companies.
The question I have is: Who benefits from the near elimination of Fort Wayne bars? Who benefits from the removal of all Cherry Masters from the area?
Tracy Warner and Melissa Long, wife of Senator and Pro-tem David Long, have been perfectly giddy travelling about the state an participating in all the gambling activities. Yesterday Pat White, on WOWO, talked about giving the OmniSource property to the indians so they could build a gambling casino.
The River Greenway looks just a bit like a boat ramp entry area.
I think that the proposed raise for the Mayor is just a thank you for being part of the team. I believe the proposed extention to the option to buy is to allow time to seal the deal.
Sammy, what do you expect to get out of all this? There will be lots of residual business ranging from development and support of the casino to services for people who are harmed by gambling. There is a lot of new opportunity for legal work! You had better get in on the ground floor or you will miss out on a lot of new money!
Sam,
Thanks for the clarification. As an outnumbered working class Republican I still believe in a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” and we will be heard. I would have thought that the GOP heard that in the primary but the lesson will continue until it is learned. The Party will not learn or come together until the leaders heal thy selves. And, top leaders can cross party lines just don’t trash candidate in the process. Where’s the party chairman addressing that?