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WINONA LAKE – Winona Lake Town Council approved a salary ordinance for the clerk-treasurer Monday.
During their Dec. 16 meeting, the council approved a salary ordinance with a 2% pay increase for town employees, tabling the portion regarding Clerk-Treasurer Heather James.
Council President Ashley McGinnis said there is a state statute that states once the clerk-treasurer’s salary is set at a certain amount, the council can’t reduce that amount. McGinnis thought this statute was put in place in order to reduce any possible corruption. She said a lot of towns don’t set the salaries extremely high, but do adopt different additional pay opportunities for people to “come into this position.”
McGinnis looked at the five towns that have the same population in Indiana and utilities Winona Lake does in the 2024 Aim salary study. The average salary between the five towns came to about $70,000. She could not find any information on the additional compensation for the other towns.
If the council brought James’ salary up 2%, the council figured out it would bring her biweekly salary up to $2,733.60 and would be about $71,000 annually.
Councilman Barry Andrew said while he thought the additional compensation was a good idea, it needed to have a thorough discussion, which he wasn’t ready to have at Monday’s meeting. He said the council needed to make sure they put in a foundation in place for the future and the topic needed possible multiple discussions about it later on. Councilman Jason Zaugg said he also had questions on some of the pay considerations for the position, as well. McGinnis said the council has to be very careful in regards to additional pay for experience. Zaugg said he wasn’t ready to talk about that part of the ordinance, just the base salary.
The council approved a salary ordinance increasing James’ salary by 2%.
In other business, the council also tabled a decision about the purchase of a skid steer for the town.
