Sitting through those multihour City Council meetings will get a little easier—for the Council at least. During its June 18 meeting, City Council approved the first reading of a $4,000 salary hike for the Mayor and councilors. The Mayor’s annual pay would jump to $16,000 from $12,000, an increase of 33 percent. Councilors would get a 40-percent raise to $14,000 from $10,000.
Technically, councilors weren’t voting to give themselves raises. The new salaries won’t go into effect until July 8, 2008, when at least two new councilors will be on the Board.
While the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors ups its pay every year, it’s been five years since City Council increased its pay. Supervisors gave themselves a 4-percent raise this year to $14,071 from $13,530, which doesn’t include the health insurance Albemarle County provides its Board members. Still, since 2002, the Board’s salary only increased 21 percent, about half the percentage of City Council’s raise.
But according to state law, the Council could have set salaries as high as $20,000 for the Mayor and $18,000 for councilors. At the meeting, Mayor David Brown said he split the difference between maximum pay and current salaries.
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