The lame duck City-County Council plans to push through an end-of-year Christmas present for incoming Mayor-elect Joe Hogsett and the 25 council members elected at this past municipal election in the form of a pay raise. Under the proposal, the salary of the mayor and council members would increase by more than 32%. The mayor's salary would go from $95,000 to $125,000. The part-time council members would be paid a base salary of $16,500, $4,000 more than the current $12,500 they are paid to attend a couple of council meetings per month. Council members are also paid an additional $112 per diem for each committee meeting and council meeting they attend, which would easily boost their annual pay to over $20,000.
"We believe that it’s important that we do look at those salaries because we want to ensure that we have the best and the brightest that are responsible for running our city," City-County Council President Maggie Lewis said. It's funny because I don't remember hearing any candidates in this past election mention while they were campaigning for office that they believed the jobs to which they were seeking election paid too little. "Obviously, I did not run for this position because I was concerned about the salary," Hogsett said. "So I’ll defer to the judgement of the leadership that’s currently in power." To translate Hogsett's words, "I asked Lewis to make sure she got my salary increased to a six-figure salary I'm accustomed to earning by the time I take office on January 1."
There, of course, are plenty of perks with the office. They get free health care benefits with the job.The mayor and council members can attend Colts and Pacers games and concerts for free and eat and drink for free in the suites at Lucas Oil Stadium and Banker's Life Fieldhouse. They're all offered free tickets to the Indianapolis 500 every year. They frequently get wined and dined at upscale restaurants. Mayor Greg Ballard managed to take at least 10 overseas junkets while he was mayor, accompanied by his wife and campaign contributors, while pretending the purpose of his trips was to promote trade with other countries. Some council members finagle free trips as well. The mayor gets a taxpayer-financed car and driver, along with his 24x7 security, and Mayor Ballard accepted free membership to several country clubs. Hogsett says he won't accept those extra perks that comes with the office.
NOTE: Under current city ordinance, the mayor also receives an annual $7,500 contributed to a deferred compensation plan, an expense account covering any expenses he incurs in the performance of his duties and is able to participate in pension, health care and any other benefits offered to other civilian city employees.
Members of the council can earn up to $5,000 in additional income above their base salary to attend regular council and committee meetings. Their base salary is pegged at 12% of mayor's salary. The per diem is $112 for regular council meetings and $62 for attendance at council committee meetings. Some members serve on more committees than others so their per diem income will exceed that of other council members. The council president is paid an additional $2,000, while the vice president, majority leader and minority leader receives an additional $1,320 in salary. Committee chairpersons receive an additional $800 in pay. Council members are entitled to participate in the same employee benefits offered to other elected employees of the City-County government.
27 comments:
The health care benefits come, I assume, tax free and so their value has been increasing every year....a case could be made by Pat that these buzzards are still compensated in advance of inflation while doing a poorer job.
"Hogsett says he won't accept those extra perks that comes with the office."
BULLSHIT.
We'll see, Joe, if you really turn down those free perks. I bet not.
The pirates continue to pillage and plunder. Make them pay. Invest elsewhere. Leave these criminals to twist in the wind.
Hog-set-for-life?
This is absolutely disgusting on every imaginable level. Virtually every accomplished Human Resources Specialist will tell you Democrat Maggie Smith is very inaccurate, possibly untruthful (just as was Republican Greg Ballard who also alleged) that high salaries attract "the best and the brightest". That is not a true statement but rather a cover-your-ass excuse and Maggie damn well knows that.
Years back when Ryan Vaughn was elevated to be Ballard's Chief of Staff with an annual salary increased to the enormous $125,000 + bennies I knew it wouldn't be long until the mayor had at least a matching amount.
So let me get this straight. The City County Council has been utterly ineffective in stopping a lawless Republican mayor break numerous criminal and civil laws, the City County Council allowed the illegal Vision Fleet to stand when Councilors had all the Aces in their hands to force its disbandment/removal, the City County Councilors did nothing (nothing!) effective to Stop Blue Indy NOW, the City County Councilors stood by like mice when Republican Greg Ballard illegally granted a fifteen year MONOPOLY to billionaire French Bollore for Blue Indy cars not even appropriately certified to be on American streets, the City County Council stood by and allowed Ballard to farm out the parking meters to a corporatist entity rather than "do it ourselves" when that was absolutely possible and would have enriched "the people" instead of special interests, the City County Council seems to have rarely done much but mouth complaints as every City fee possible was increased, the City County Council stood by while every nook and cranny of downtown has been made to look like Disneyland, and the City County Council has done nothing for the deteriorating neighborhoods and the failing infrastructure. Uh, why do we have and pay a City County Council??? IT'S ALL STILL THERE! I TOLD YOU SO!!!
And they believe they deserve raises, they believe (in effect) they are "the best and the brightest" talent, and they reward an incoming mayor who never once during his campaign complained about the current $95,000 annual mayoral salary?
Now that Greg Ballard is commandeering more free public parking spaces for another of his Blue Indy battery powered rental car recharging stations in Lockerbie at the Athenaeum, let's see how many Lockerbie People remember this when next election rolls around. The problem is the people shrub their shoulders and let it go. And that's exactly what these crony career politicians are hoping you will again do.
Yeah, what was I thinking? Yeah, our City County Councilors sure did earn that big fat pay raise (for those on the Council, this is called "sarcasm"). Every City County Councilor should hang their heads low in deep shame for this unearned money grab. If the current income was not enough for you, none of you should have scrounged and run so hard to be retained or elected, it is just that simple.
4:28 p.m. leaves little that can be added to this discussion.
If this is the "Brightest and Smartest" serving now, God help us all...
They "want the best and brightest?", so explain Monroe Gray to me.
The "best and brightest" comment is over the top. I suppose that's why the Ds didn't want Pat Andrews to run for council and had LeRoy Robinson move into Angela Mansfield's district and slated her to run against her in the primary. The slating process both parties have erected prevents the best and brightest from serving on the council; not the lack of pay for the job.
I surely hope the votes on this will be posted.
Not that it will ever happen ... but slating needs to be abolished on all sides!
aside from the howling, how do these salaries compare with Columbus (OH), Louisville, and Cincinatti?
The mayor's salary is arguably too low currently. The larger point is the manner in which they've chosen to raise their pay. The pay raise proposal for the mayor and council members should have been included as part of next year's budget discussion passed before this year's election. You know they've been talking about doing this pay raise for quite some time in those caucus meetings they conduct in private. They didn't discuss it prior to the election because they didn't want to defend the plan they knew then they would be putting forward right after the election. They count on people's short memories making this a non-issue by the time the next election rolls around in 2019.
Quite frankly, of what statistical or logical importance is the relativism of current Indianapolis Councilor or Mayor salaries to salaries in any other city or town other than a deflection or a smokescreen of the issue at hand?
The taxpayers who have the fruits of their labor (their hard-earned income) taken from them to pay politicians' salaries will never ever enjoy the health/medical insurance benefits, the paid days off, the perks of power/privilege/position/payola (e.g.: fee tickets and dinners to name just two), the special red carpet treatment at high end "elite" restaurants/private clubs, and the world travel.
See how silent are the establishment Republicans and the liberal Democrats (there is not an iota of differentiation among them) about their impending pay raises.
Gary gets it right. Any sentient human knows damn well these career politicians who could never make it in the free market as well as they do in the "political market" have been talking about this behind voting taxpayers' backs for some time.
Laid bare for all to see is that it just did not matter at all who you retained or elected as your Councilor or as your mayor. Not a damn one of them were honest enough to tell you up front they would vote to have you pay for their increase in salary. Not a damn one.
Do the anti-government activists now protest the economic results of privatization? The pot of gold is no longer in creating a business but is in a parasitic relationship with the taxpayer. The seemingly unending giveaways and usurping of public assets is now considered the norm, and in some cases, the restructuring cannot be reversed. On the agenda, and well underway, is the dismantling of our public school system by the new IPS board. If you prefer corporate control over public control, then get ready for the economic consequences.
Oh my gosh! Just how did Maggie Lewis ever become President of the City County Council spouting such ignorance and tomfoolery that high political salaries are required so that "the best and the brightest" can be attracted and retained to "government" jobs?!? I have one name for this woman: Frank Straub. Indianapolis' - and now Spokane's- former public safety director cost taxpayers in both cities far more than his outsized salaries.
I am on the edge of my seat just waiting for more pearls of wisdom to fall from Maggie Lewis's lips.
I believe Anon 12:55 is confusing criminal, illegal crony schemes between corporatists and bought and paid for fascist-style Demopublicans and the falsehood of "public control". "Public control" is nothing of the sort that the term seems to imply; it is not "the public" that controls but the liberal humanistic masterminds who believe their intelligence is so vast that it must not be wasted and, by God or by Judge, they will effect the change they know you need. "Public control" is nothing more than a euphemism for larger, bigger, more bloated State control over every aspect of our lives. If Anon 12:55 actually thinks that the State controlling entities like school boards, public buildings and land, programs of all sorts, etc., leads to effective, efficient, corruption-free governance and blissful citizen living, I have a bridge in Brooklyn... The State already controls most of the aforementioned and that is precisely why we are in the dreadful mess we find ourselves.
THANK you Kyle Walker for shoving all the fake RINO's Down our throat and sticking us with either a RINO or DEMOCRAT crook.
How much longer until this slimeball of a GOP leader steps down? Anyone know?
This sentence, from Anon 9:35 AM, says it all:
"See how silent are the establishment Republicans and the liberal Democrats (there is not an iota of differentiation among them) about their impending pay raises"
To Anon 12:34: Kyle Walker and his wife Jennifer Hallowell Walker have grown quite, quite wealthy and I doubt they will relinquish their stranglehold on establishment crony Republican power quietly. Kyle's wife "Jen", who manages Greg Ballard, has made a small fortune off the ex-soldier. Every time they send out a political postcard campaign, I am told, they get a neat and easy 20% off the top (the cost) of the political mailer. Geez, just how easy money is that? Kyle Walker has now lost the entirety of Marion County. Kyle is pushing Jefferson Shreve who has done so very little for the south side area but so very much of whatever Kyle tells him to do. If Shreve wins, Kyle and Jen's money bags continue to get stuffed. That is why Kyle Walker (and his wife Jen) continues to push candidates who are in the Walker/Hallowell best financial interests and NOT in the best interests of the voters.
To Anon 8:55: I will not hold my breath to see or hear Councilors Christine Scales, Jeff Miller, Zach Adamson, Vop Osili, Janice McHenry, Aaron Freeman, or the over-rated Maggie Lewis vote shout out in public their "yea" or "nay" positions on the matter. Obfuscation, deflection, disingenuous, or outright deception is more what I expect from this gaggle rather than an effective, definitive response from any of them.
Comment on Anonymous...aside from the howling, how do these salaries compare with Columbus (OH), Louisville, and Cincinatti?
This sounds like a Library employee commenting because this is who they compared our library salaries with to justify their high dollar raises. The CEO makes 138,000.00 and if she gets the minimum 2% raise she will be making over 140,000.00. But is anyone saying anything about this?
Quack, Quack, Quack. Discussion should be about the jobs and the proper pay plans for those jobs, not any person sitting in the seat. If we had better pay maybe we would get better candidates to choose from. It costs I believe about $60,000/year to pay your taxes and feed a family of 3 and $120,000/year to be able to save and send your one kid to college. The problem with Marion County is far too few of it's residents even make the $60,000. What we need are rewarding comp plans and people that deserve them because they are creating a thriving community of great jobs for its residents. Anybody that thinks a mayor of a city with a billion dollar budget only deserves $95,000 for a 24-7-365 job like that is living in a world I don't understand. If we don't pay these public servants it just makes it easier for the folks that bribe them to keep their costs down. IMHO of course.
Columbus, OH Mayor: $172,981 (Council $53,585)
Louisville, KY Mayor: $105,745 (Council $35,000-50,000)
St. Louis, MO Mayor: $131,746 (Florissant, MO, Mayor: $135,746)
Cincinnati, OH Mayor: $111,402 (Cincinnati City Manager: $185,000)
Columbus has only 7 council members compared to Indy's 25. Their council has been turned into a full-time legislative body.
I am very concerned about the plans for indy in 2016 ,same old people on transtition teams..why is it that the same people direct our taxpayers future for their gain only and monies in their pockets. my question do we have any serious retired executives who wold like to redirect this cities future..i believe we do ,but the hacks will not let this happen.i think the publicneeds to form their owns teams and go to all committee meetings and then to the council meetigs,i would be open to help form these teams to express what we want to see just not a few people in charge of our could be gteat city...........
transtition teams for 2016 is a joke,why do we allow a few people to run our taxpayers city.......what a big big huge joke
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