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Plunkett wants PTC Council pay raiseTue, 07/17/2007 - 4:39pm
By: John Munford
Peachtree City Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett knows that her request to increase the pay for the city’s mayor and council members will not be terribly well-received. She’s not even sure if her fellow city council members will approve the concept, but she is pushing the issue to encourage more citizens to run for public office. Currently, council members are paid $9,000 a year and the mayor is paid $12,000 a year. But those figures were last modified in 1985, so Plunkett is proposing that salaries be raised by applying an annual “cost of living” hike for each year since then. The end result would be raising the mayor’s pay to $17,840 and council members’ pay to $11,226 a year, Plunkett said. The matter will be up for discussion at Thursday night’s City Council meeting and Plunkett is willing to compromise in an effort to make it more palatable by spreading the increases evenly starting with the 2008-2009 budget. If the job paid a little more, a larger group of people might consider taking on the part-time job of serving as a council member, Plunkett said. While some may argue that elected officials should do the job for free, Plunkett disagrees. “I personally think that limits the people who can do it,” Plunkett said. “... That limits you basically to people who are independently wealthy and retired people.” Given the amount of work involved with serving as a council member, Plunkett guesses that many people wouldn’t want to do the job for just $9,000 a year. Plunkett noted that since the last raise in 1985, city council meetings have increased significantly, from 30 that year to the 47 held last year. There’s also an incredible amount of email that has to be handled, Plunkett said. Also, campaigns can be expensive to run, making it further difficult for someone who might be a great fit for public office but couldn’t afford to take on the part-time job and/or make sacrifices in their current career, she said. “This is about diversity and allowing a broad base of people to run,” Plunkett said. If the raise is approved, Plunkett, Mayor Harold Logsdon and Councilman Steve Boone would ultimately receive the raise. Plunkett said the issue could become significant during the upcoming election for the seats currently held by Stuart Kourajian and Judi-ann Rutherford, and the citizens ultimately could “vote” on whether or not they like the salary bump. The mayor’s position is even more time-consuming than that of regular council members, and it’s much closer to a full-time job, Plunkett added. She will suggest to council that it should look at offering some benefits to the mayor, perhaps in the area of insurance or retirement enticements. Plunkett noted that former Mayor Steve Brown and current Mayor Logsdon have spent quite a bit of time on the job. “I just think you can’t be an effective mayor and have a full-time job,” Plunkett said. Plunkett noted that the city of Fayetteville, which is much smaller, pays more for its mayor, at $14,363, and although council members are slotted at $9,600 annually, Fayetteville also provides retirement benefits to its council members, she said. Plunkett said she thinks some Peachtree City residents would like to see the council pay increased given that it hasn’t changed since 1985, and spreading the increase out over two years may make it more reasonable. login to post comments
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