Warsaw Councilman Klondaris Proposes Pay Hike For Council
Warsaw Councilman Klondaris Proposes Pay Hike For Council
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Councilman Klondaris Proposes Pay Hike For CouncilWarsaw Councilman Mike Klondaris proposed Thursday night that the Council give itself a bigger raise for 2022 than the 3.5% that’s already been figured into the 2022 budget.
He initiated the discussion when the 2022 Elected Officials Salary Ordinance came up for approval during the Council’s meeting. After about a half hour discussion, the Council unanimously passed the salary ordinance on first and second reading as originally presented with the thought that the wage committee will evaluate an increase in 2022 for approval in 2023, which would then take effect in 2024. The city elections are in 2023. The ordinance did not have to be approved until Dec. 31.
In presenting his proposal, Klondaris, who has served on the Council for a decade, said it was something that’s been on his mind for the last couple of years.
“This Council has to approve all wages including our own, and I think sometimes there’s a perception that if you do something for yourself out of the ordinary, that it’s self-serving,” he said.
Klondaris said when he came onto the Council, he didn’t know anything about what it paid as he just wanted to serve.
“I also didn’t know how much time that I would be putting in serving the community. And it’s quite substantial. I attend a lot of meetings and I answer all my phone calls from constituents. I go to their homes, I go to their businesses. I use my own car, my own gas, my own cell phone, my own printer, my own ink. My own time because I spend a lot of time talking with you all, talking with constituents, talking to department heads, and I think it’s time that – in the course of the 10 years, we’ve given ourselves exactly what we’ve given everybody else because we want to be fair and equal. And I get it,” he said.
However, he said, “We are the bottom feeders. We are the lowest paid people in the whole city. The city couldn’t function without this body. I think we need to realize our value and the time and commitment that we make. We don’t do this for prestige or honor, we do it because we want to serve. But we need to be compensated for the time we put in.”
Klondaris said the Council works its butt of.
“If you think of all of the things we have done, in the ... 10 years that I have been here – we’ve built a new fire station, we’ve built a new storage facility, we’ve given special raises to the police department, we’ve given raises to the IT Governance Committee, we really try to take care of our people. We buy equipment. We spend money on everybody but ourselves, and I think it’s time that we do realize our value and give ourselves that once-in-a-decade bump to get us up to where I feel we need to be,” he said.
If the Council just gives itself a 3% raise, he said that’s just $4 extra a week.
In trying to figure out a way to give the Council a raise and what amount, Klondaris proposed the Council gives itself “a raise equal to the dollar amount we are willing to give a raise to the mayor.” He said that was a fair way to do it.
According to information he had provided by Human Resource Director Jennifer Whitaker comparing mayoral and council salaries from around the state, Klondaris said the Warsaw Council was sort of at the bottom.
“By doing this, I think it would bring us up to where we need to be,” he said.
Councilman Jerry Frush agreed with Klondaris, adding that one person who should certainly be given a little extra pay is the council president. The Council elects a president every year and for 2021 it is Jack Wilhite.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said the issue warrants having further discussion.
Diane Quance, councilwoman who sits on the wage committee with Dobbins and Councilman Jeff Grose, said the committee did not look at wages this year for the elected positions of mayor, clerk-treasurer or Council.
“One of the things that we do need to take into consideration is that many councils do not get insurance. So they do not have the opportunity to get the employee benefit. I know that not everybody here takes it, but it is quite a substantial amount of money,” Quance pointed out.
Grose said it might be a good idea for the wage committee to take a look at it if the Council, mayor and clerk-treasurer wants to do it. “Look at it next year, and ideally it would be good to put it into play after the next election,” Grose said. “That way all of us can tell the community here is what we believe.” He said it would be the next Council that comes in after the election that would receive the increase.
“I just like the idea that there would be a lot of study,” he said, adding that he would feel “really comfortable” with it if it was after an election.
Wilhite said he would support looking into it, but was “very adverse to raising something that I would benefit from.”
Frush, Klondaris and Dobbins at that point wanted to wait on approving the Elected Officials Salary Ordinance until another meeting. Quance said since there would be no changes to the ordinance before Dec. 31, they could go ahead and approve it Thursday. Klondaris said he wanted more time to contemplate it more.
Wilhite asked if he wanted to increase the Council’s salaries this year for 2022. “I think we should,” Klondaris responded, “But I see what Jeff is saying and I just don’t want to get ... hung up in analysis paralysis.”
Mayor Joe Thallemer reminded the Council that, “The budgets have been set with the 3.5%. If there is an increase, there would have to be an additional appropriation.”
Grose reiterated several times that the wage committee should look at it next year to be put into play after the election cycle.
“The other side of that coin is that it could complicate the matter,” Klondaris said.
Councilman Josh Finch said, “My full-time job employer, I save $5,000 a year by electing to take (the city’s) insurance. So that’s added compensation, in my opinion, to what I’m already making. I feel like I’m more than compensated enough.”
Thallemer said he personally feels that, in regards to setting the elected officials’ wages, it should be a recommendation from the wage committee to the Council and not the other way around.
Klondaris decided to make the motion to approve the Elected Officials Salary Ordinance as presented, knowing that the wage committee would look at it. The ordinance was approved unanimously on first and second reading.
Also approved on first and second readings were the 2022 ordinances for the general salary, police and fire departments.
