Before City Manager Robert Layton laid out his preliminary budget recommendations this year, which includes significant cutbacks, Mayor Carl Brewer took the unprecedented move of calling for a vote to forgo salary increases for elected officials.
The message was pretty clear: In a year of likely wage freezes, layoffs and furloughs for city employees, the big bosses are not getting any bumps either.
No vote was necessary — they need only decline raises with the human resources department. But the move led to each council member to publicly decline a raise. It was the first time they’d done that in recent history. Here’s a look at the much quieter raises council members got in recent years.
Keep in mind, council members are technically part-time and the mayor is full-time. Their increases are based on the Consumer Price Index, though you may notice that when the CPI went down in 2009, there was no salary decrease — just no increase.
Year Council salary Mayor salary
2003 $29,845 $70,272
2004 $30,532 $71,889
2005 $31,601 $74,913
2006 $32,707 $77,535
2007 $33,557 $79,551
2008 $34,866 $82,654
2009 No change No change
2010 Declined Declined