OCEAN CITY — Although some members of the public were against doubling the salaries of the mayor and City Council, others did by citing the need to lower the cortisol levels in public officials and to get them paid a bit closer to what birds of prey earn to scare away gulls in the resort.
On second reading after a public hearing Thursday, Aug. 24, council approved the raises in a 6-0 vote with an amendment that ties future raises to the Consumer Price Index rather than to contracts with city employees to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Starting Jan. 1, 2024, the mayor will earn $40,000 and council members $20,000. The current pay, in place since 2006, is $20,600 for the mayor and $10,300 for council members. In subsequent years, the pay will increase annually based on the regional Consumer Price Index.
Resident Nelson Dice said he disagreed with the amounts in the pay ordinance because they are too low and should be more to lower the stress in these public officials.
“This town is a major corporation,” he said, adding he wouldn’t put up with the stress of either job.
“I would be 100 percent for this in its current form with the caveat it should be more. They’ve been underpaid for years,” Dice said. “The cortisol that goes through our blood system when we are under stress is taking time off of our lives and I don’t want to be responsible for that, so they should be joyfully serving us.”
Resident Marie Hayes and her husband Dave Hayes used pay comparisons to support the raises.
Marie Hayes said the total raises amount to $90,000 a year in a town with $15 billion in ratables. “I think we can easily budget for this,” she said.
She noted she and her husband haven’t always agreed with Mayor Jay Gillian’s administration, such as paying for raptors to chase away the gulls from the boardwalk and downtown.
However, she noted, “the raptors get paid $125 an hour with benefits including regular hours, frequent breaks and all the food they can eat. So if we’re OK with paying raptors $125 an hour with benefits, we should have no problem paying the mayor $19.23 an hour and City Council members $9.62 an hour.”
Dave Hayes said he understands that to attract good talent, “you have to pay for it” and the administration “pays handsomely” its top workers.
Because the mayor and council are essentially on call at all times, he said even basing their current pay on a regular work week, the mayor now gets paid about $9.62 an hour and council about $4.81 an hour.
He said that was even a “pittance” in 2005 when the last raise was approved to start in 2006.
With the raise, the mayor would be paid $19.23 an hour and council $9.62, “which is still less than what you get paid at McDonald’s,” he said.
Residents Donna Moore and Susan Cracovaner both asked the measure be tabled. Cracovaner said more time was needed so the public could see the internal report by Business Administrator George Savastano that justified the raises. Moore said it should be tabled to consider the amount of debt the city carries.
Others supported raising the salaries but said the percentage increase was too high.
Robert Forman said he supported raises but the city did not justify the level of increase.
“You guys absolutely deserve a raise,” Bill Hartranft said. “No question in my mind. I do question the percent raise.”
He suggested it should be 39 or 40 percent while also noting the city’s debt.
Council members weigh in before voting in favor
Council Vice President Karen Bergman said she appreciated all the comments about the raises, both for and against.
“It was a very hard decision for me,” she said. “I was on council in 2010 when we … got rid of our medical benefits and weren’t compensated for that, and I was fine with that. I don’t do this for the money. … If we got a raise every year we would be where we’re at right now. It’s very hard to give yourself a raise and it’s humbling in a way.”
Terry Crowley Jr. agreed with Bergman, noting he has served on many boards over the years and what matters in a person’s end game.
“Whether you’re on a paid board or a volunteer board, you leave it better than you found it,” he said. The council is doing “what should have been done years ago” and approving the ordinance now “will take the burden off future councils.”
“Prolonging this and tabling it for another time does not make it any less awkward for us. This certainly is awkward but it’s something that needs to be done,” Jody Levchuk said.
He noted he appreciated the people who spoke against the raises, or against the size of the raises, because that is what led to amending the ordinance to tie future increases to the CPI.
The newest councilman, Dave Winslow, faced the ordinance at his first meeting earlier this month.
“It was a little bit ominous,” he said, “and I knew it was going to be a tough one.” He said he isn’t in it for the money but he wanted to serve.
Winslow said he reviewed Savastano’s analysis and then added some additional data points that supported it and talked to some constituents.
He said he looked at a number of different factors including national CPI, regional CPI, average wage increases for Social Security regional data and other factors “and came to same conclusion as George.”
“None of us want to be the ones to give ourselves a raise … but the numbers can be justified,” Winslow said.
Ordinance amended
Before the vote, city Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson explained the change to the ordinance and Mayor Gillian weighed in on the public comments about the city’s debt load, reported at $189 million.
Gillian said citizens concerned about the debt load should talk to Chief Financial Officer Frank Donato or auditor Leon Costello. He said the duo does “an amazing job” managing the debt, which is taken very seriously.
“We don’t spend money haphazardly,” Gillian said. “Everyone can say the debt is high, but it is well-managed.”
McCrosson said she was asked to amend the automatic escalator provision in the salary ordinance. As originally written, the annual raises were tied to the raises in contracts for the city employees, but now are tied to the regional Consumer Price Index, an objective index, with the provision that raises would be no more than what is awarded to city employees.
Some residents had suggested there was a conflict of interest because if council or the administration negotiated contracts, they would have a vested interest in raises awarded to other city employees.
McCrosson said neither the mayor nor council members negotiate the contracts, something that is left to the business administrator.
She said she could see how the public could perceive a conflict of interest, but no matter who negotiates council inevitably has to vote on an ordinance to raise city employees’ pay.
Tying the council and mayor’s raises to the CPI “takes any subjectivity out of the raise. They’ll be tied to an objective index,” McCrosson said. “Even the appearance of a conflict of interest has been eliminated because of the amendment.”
Council President Pete Madden said there was considerable discussion over the past two weeks and council did not go through the ordinance without thoughtful consideration.
Council voted 6-0 to approve the ordinance. Councilman Tom Rotondi was not at the meeting.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff