The Peachtree City Council narrowly approved doubling the salaries of the mayor from $9,000 to $18,000 a year and of council members from $6,000 to $12,000 a year.

The raises, approved in a 3-1-1 vote, will not take effect until 2010, which means that none of the current council members will get that raise unless they are re-elected to office. It does mean, however, that anyone elected to council this November would get the raise in the middle of their term.

Council members Stuart Kourajian, Cyndi Plunkett and Steve Boone voted in favor of the raises and new Councilman Mike Harman, in his first meeting since being appointed three days earlier, voted against the measure.

Mayor Harold Logsdon abstained from the vote, saying he thinks it’s the right thing for the city to do.

“There are some things that are weighing in my mind, and it’s my intention to abstain and yield to the wishes of my fellow council members,” Logsdon said, noting earlier that he had been focusing on ways to increase city revenue without raising taxes and work on transportation and redevelopment issues.

Only four citizens spoke during a public hearing about the raises: two in favor and two against. Resident Robert Brown said he thought the raises resulted in too large an increase.

Brown also noted that the unintended consequence of raising the salaries is that it will also double the qualifying fee which each candidate must file in order to run for office. That means it will cost a prospective candidate $360 to run instead of the current $180 filing fee. State law mandates the fee be equal to 3 percent of the annual salary.

Plunkett has said she wanted the salary increases to encourage a wider variety of citizens to run for office because it will make it easier for them to afford working in the part-time position.

Another resident, Beth Pullias, told council that after attending a number of council meetings, she thinks council is “worth every penny” of the raise.

Logsdon noted that he has been silent on the issue because he has been focusing on finding new revenue streams for the city in the past 10-11 months, and he appreciated Plunkett taking charge of the issue and doing all the research.

The city had not changed the salary of mayor and council since 1985.

The motion approved by council included a provision to allow city council members to participate in the city’s tax deferred 457 retirement plan, which will cost the city nothing because the city does not match contributions to that plan.

Harman tried to convince council to forget about raising the salaries and only allow council members to join the 457 program, but his effort failed.

Harman noted that having served as a volunteer on the city’s Water and Sewer Authority for some time, he felt uncomfortable voting for a raise of the mayor and council salaries even though he felt it might be the right thing to do.

Logsdon admitted he had been silent on the issue of the raises, but said he had a reason.

“This is a hard one and it affects us all in different ways,” Logsdon said.