Elyria City Council discusses pay raise

On Tuesday, Elyria City Council began discussing the possibility of an annual raise for Council members to begin in either the 2026 or 2028 term. The discussion began at a Council Finance Committee meeting at the request of Law Director Amanda Deery and Finance Director Ted Pileski, who was absent from the meeting. Deery proposed a 1.75 percent annual raise for members of Council that could be paused, amended or canceled at any time by Council. Deery said Council members make roughly $14,100 a year, with the Council president making an extra $500 per year. That number has remained unchanged since 2006, when an annual increase approved by Council in 2002 expired. Employment on Council is considered part time. "I know this is sensitive when Council is obviously dealing with their own salaries, but I think once every two decades is probably not overreaching," Deery said. Deery said that 1.75 percent increase came from the amount that the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System was increasing its minimum salary to receive credit toward retirement. She said Council members are currently above that minimum, but as it continues to increase, it will eventually surpass their salary and make Council members unable to receive credit toward retirement. No action on the proposal was taken Tuesday, and several members of Council agreed that they would not make any decision on a proposed raise until they saw a comparison between their current pay rate and Council members in comparable cities. "I don't think that we can move forward with anything until we have some idea of where our salaries lie in comparison to other council salaries in Lorain County and perhaps Northeast Ohio," said Councilwoman Mary Siwerka, D-3rd Ward. "... When you set salaries, you look at similar jobs. You look at similar job functions." Councilman Phil Tollett, D-At Large, is chair of the Finance Committee and said he would ask the city's human resources employees to carry out a study to compare Council's current pay rate and proposed pay rate to similar cities in the area. Tollett said that he felt a raise should be considered in part so that future generations of Elyrians would be more incentivized to run for City Council. "We need to also think about the upcoming generation," Tollett said. "I'm only going to look in the mirror at myself. I am on the back nine of public service, I know that, but if we want to be able to encourage younger members of our community to do this, then we need to make the correct decision. So that we continue to draw good people." Councilman Kenny Oswald, D-6th Ward, said he felt most people who were interested in joining Council were not drawn by the money, that Tollett agreed with, and asked Assistant Finance Director John Farrell how much the proposed raise would cost the city per year. Farrell estimated that the raises would cost the city about $2,700 a year initially, plus an additional 14 percent of that amount for pension matching. That 14 percent would come out to another roughly $400. "I want to say thank you to the law director for bringing this topic up," said Councilman Thomas Callahan, D-At Large. "We have avoided talking about this topic because it is uncomfortable … it is a topic that we have kicked down the road quite a bit. The bottom line is, we are not talking about this Council. We are talking about future councils." Deery said that if Council wanted to take action to increase members' salaries for the 2026 term, it should do so before the end of 2024. If members chose to put off the increase to the 2028 term, she said, they had more time. Council is only permitted to increase its own salaries at the start of a new City Council term, which begin every two years. "I think that at least every 20 years we should have this conversation," Deery said. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.