The Senoia City Council is discussing a proposal that could soon raise the mayor's salary more than 500 percent.

The pay raise would jump the mayor's salary from $6,000 a year to $40,000 a year, but would just be a temporary raise, said city councilman Judy Belisle.

The unique salary structure proposal was discussed at Monday night's City Council meeting after the council reached an impasse on hiring a city manager.

The council had narrowed the field to two candidates, but said efforts to hire the candidates were not successful because of a “conflict of interest.”

With several large projects looming in the near future, including the construction of a sewer system, the city is debating whether to make the mayor's position full-time for at least six months to help the city deal with the complexities of the project.

Before the debate on the salary raise started, Mayor Joan Trammell excused herself from the meeting and Belisle chaired the issue in her position as mayor pro-tempore.

The council seemed eager to approve the issue, but city attorney Kemp Wright explained an ordinance would have to be created and advertised before the council could raise the salary.

Belisle said the council discussed raising the salary and making the mayor full-time because Trammell has already had two years experience and knows how to deal with some of the government agencies.

But with this being an election year and Trammell up for re-election, the council was wary that discussing such a large salary raise might cause a stampede to the qualifying booth who might not be qualified and trying to win the race just for the money.

“They could really screw the city,” said Belisle.

The council ultimately decided to table the issue and will discuss it once again at next Monday's meeting after qualifying has ended. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at City Hall.

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