Council pay raises?

Mayor urges council pay raise, Voters must approve city charter change before compensation can be increased. Don Ruane druane@news-press.com (Aug. 2)
Raising the salaries of city council members and the mayor could lead to better government, according to Cape Coral Mayor Eric Feichthaler. Higher pay would reduce the temptation of corruption and could attract more candidates for office who might be deterred by the current pay, Feichthaler said.
Council members get $14,570 a year; the mayor $17,150. Council members said that's not enough to attract good candidates and support their families if they have to take time away from or leave better-paying jobs to serve. No decision to pursue an increase has been made but the council has talked about the possibility at times, including last week's strategic goals planning session. Voters would have to approve a change to the city's charter to change how elected officials are paid, City Attorney Dolores Menendez told the council. Voters turned down proposed changes in 1998 and 2003. The charter calls for council members to be paid 17 cents per registered voter as of Nov. 1 each year. The mayor is paid 20 cents per registered voter. There have been proposals in the past to increase the amount per registered voter or to base the salaries on the city's population. The city has an estimated population of 142,000 people. Council salaries would jump to $24,140 and the mayor's to $28,400 if they were paid the current rate per resident.
"Every time you put it on the ballot it gets shot down," saidCouncilman A.J. Boyd. "I think it should go back on. The time I put in now compared to time I put in when I first got on (the council) has increased dramatically. The money, me personally, is not going to make or break me." Councilman Mickey Rosado agreed the pay issue should be placed on the ballot. But council members have to be able to explain to the public why they deserve the increase, he said. "That's our responsibility to take that to the community," Rosado said. "We're the third largest city in the state of Florida and we're working really hard."
Voters did change the way salaries were calculated in 1993. That's when they switched to the registered voter method. That change raised the salary from $5,000 to $7,902 for the council and from $6,000 to $9,296 for the mayor. Cities use different methods to determine pay for their elected officials, according to a memo Menendez sent to Rosado.
The Fort Myers city charter sets salaries at $25,000 for council members. The council sets the mayor's salary, but it can't be less than $67,912, her memo said. Council members generally agreed during the strategic planning session that they would support the creation of a committee to study the pay issue. But Councilman Richard Stevens said he doubts it will lead to a change. "I'm rather skeptical that people are willingly going to vote a salary increase," Stevens said.