- April 26, 2024
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Palm Coast's City Council will get a modest salary increase, based on the Consumer Price Index. It won't take effect until after the next election.
The council approved an ordinance on the measure, which would raise the council members' salaries from $9,600 to $9,792, and the mayor's salary from $11,400 to $11,628, at a meeting Feb. 2.
"This provides a slight adjustment, a one-time adjustment," Mayor Jon Netts said after the 4-1 vote on the measure. "I don’t see this as particularly onerous, but it puts (the matter) to rest, at least for the moment."
The council had five options in terms of adjusting its base salaries, Netts explained before the vote. It could:
After Netts explained the options, Councilman Bill McGuire made a motion for the council to take the second option — giving the council and mayor the equivalent of a city employee cost of living increase, which would raise the council members' salaries to $9,792 and the mayor's salary to $11,628. Councilman Jason DeLorenzo seconded Netts' motion.
But Netts and council members Steve Nobile and Heidi Shipley voted against that option, so it failed, 3-2.
Shipley then made a motion for the council to take the third option, adding retroactive Consumer Price Index adjustments since 2007, raising the council's salary to $11,002 and the mayor's to $13,064. McGuire seconded her motion.
But Netts, Nobile and DeLorenzo voted against it, so it also failed 3-2.
Nobile motioned to put the issue on a non-binding referendum to be added to the November ballot. No one else supported that measure.
But then Netts asked to reconsider the initial vote on the second option. The council voted 4-1, with Nobile dissenting, to reconsider that earlier motion.
Then it voted 4-1, again with Nobile dissenting, in favor of the second option, giving council members and the mayor the equivalent of a one-time employee cost of living adjustment.
The council then voted unanimously not to add any provision for automatic pay increases to the ordinance that will raise their salaries.
The salary change, as per the city's charter, will not take place until after the upcoming election. Netts will not be there, as he is term-limited. Neither will McGuire, who has said he plans to move to Missouri after his current term ends to be near family. DeLorenzo is running for County Commission.
The Feb. 2 vote came after months of discussion about raising council members' salaries, which are lower than those of elected representatives on the County Commission, who make about $50,900, set by the state; and the School Board, who make about $31,900. When the city incorporated in 1999, council member salaries were $1,200, or $100 per month.
"Personally I’ve hear a lot of negatives in regards to salary increases, " Nobile said at the Feb. 2 meeting. "One of them was corruption; one of them was that people will run because they want a job. You cannot run an organization by not doing things because someone will possibly abuse it. That is simply saying, 'We're not going do the positive because someone might take advantage of that.' And that’s not how you grow. ... The salary should be a stipend. ... It should be enough that I can work part time and do this job effectively, and have enough money to support my family."
A handful of people spoke during the meeting's public comment period, with most saying the council deserved some kind of pay increase.
"I’m the individual that essentially recommended the salaries you currently have," said former city council member and former county commissioner Alan Peterson. "You are not employees in my estimation; you essentially are the board of directors of the city, and (City Manager) Jim Landon would ... essentially be the CEO. So I believe that your salaries should not be tied to employee salaries, or employee raises."
Peterson suggested raising the council member's salaries and the mayor's salary by about 25%.
Councilman Steve Nobile first raised the issue of increasing City Council members' salaries in the context of his push for the city to create a resident committee to review the City Charter. Raising council salaries, he said, could be done in the context of a resident-led charter review, taking it out of council members hands.
But the council months ago voted against a resident-led review. Since then, Nobile has still pushed for an increase to council members' salaries, saying it might help attract younger council candidates who would find it easier to set aside the time needed to sit on the council if the pay was higher.
"This conversation today," Nobile said at the Feb. 2 meeting, "stems from my request for a charter review which was brought to me. One of the items was to set the salary so it would have to be a referendum. And I made it clear I was very uncomfortable bringing up salary changes, but it was forced this way."
Nobile had initially suggested pegging City Council members' salaries to a percentage — he suggested 70% to 80% — of County Commissioners' salaries, but later backtracked from that idea, suggesting at a Jan. 26 workshop that the city instead peg council members' salaries to the salary of the city's lowest paid worker — currently, about $23,300.
Netts said at the workshop Jan. 26 that he could support cost of living increases, but that council members knew what the pay was when they signed up. He reminded them that many people volunteer in the community and get nothing.
City Councilman Bill McGuire and City Councilman Jason DeLorenzo have in the past expressed less interest in pay increases than Shipley and Nobile. But McGuire has at previous meetings suggested that the city more accurately reimburse council members for milage expenses (they now get a $100 per month mileage stipend) or allow them use of city vehicles for city-related trips, and DeLorenzo has suggested the city add retroactive cost-of-living increases going back to 2007.
Council member Heidi Shipley has previously suggested tying council members' salaries to the average pay for Palm Coast workers, which she said is about $22,856, and then tying raises to an external factor like the Consumer Price Index, so that the council doesn't have to vote on its own pay in the future.
No one made a motion for a raise that high during the Feb. 2 meeting, and Shipley said that she'd talked to residents, and most wouldn't support that kind of raise.
But, she said at the Feb. 2 meeting, "I only spoke to two people who though we should not get raises at all. ... It has to be something more than what it is now."
