Canton Council approves significant pay raises for top staff, council clerk

CANTON – Four of the mayor’s top staff and city council’s clerk will receive significant pay raises this year – and then another 3% pay increase in January.

Canton City Council on Monday approved adjusting the salaries of the five employees as follows:

• $127,000 a year for Service Director John Highman Jr., which represents a 16% increase from his current salary. Highman, who was hired in 2013 and became service director in 2018, is the appointing authority for employees in the city’s 11 service departments, such as sanitation, water and streets.

• $127,000 a year for Safety Director Andrea Perry, which represents a 16% increase from her current salary. Perry, who was hired in 2011, is the appointing authority for the city police and fire departments and oversees the city’s building code enforcement and 911 dispatch operations.

• $115,000 a year for Finance Director Mark Crouse, which represents a nearly 10% increase. Crouse, hired in 2016, is responsible for developing and overseeing the city’s budget of roughly $300 million.

• $115,000 a year for Economic Development Director Christopher Hardesty, which represents a nearly 18% increase. Hardesty, hired in 2022, handles attracting and retaining city businesses.

• $68,000 a year for Council Clerk Jill Wood, which represents a nearly 17% increase. Wood, hired in 2014 as an administrative assistant and appointed clerk in 2021, serves as the appointing authority for the council office and oversees the council office staff, budget and operations.

Each of their salaries will increase by another 3% on Jan. 1, due to a raise that council passed last month for nonunion city employees.

Council, which fast-tracked the legislation, approved Wood’s salary increase unanimously. Eleven members approved the raises for the mayor’s cabinet, while Ward 9 Councilman Frank Morris III opposed the ordinance.

Mayor Thomas Bernabei, who will leave office after the end of his second four-year term on Dec. 31, had requested the raises for four of his cabinet members, stating their pay should reflect their level of authority and job responsibility. He noted that the safety and service directors earned less than some of the people they oversee.

Council members explain their votes

Councilman at-large Bill Smuckler said Wood’s base pay is lower than other professional positions in the city and the gap widens when overtime, holiday pay and other differentials are considered. He said the increase was long overdue.

“It’s one of my biggest regrets here,” said Smuckler, who has served on City Council for more than 30 years. “…. This is a situation where something was wrong in the past and we’re fixing it now.”

He said he also supported the increases for the cabinet members because he doesn’t want them to leave for a better-paying job.

Morris, a councilman since 2012, agreed that Wood’s increase was justified, saying the position has been “grossly underpaid” for years.

But he opposed the salary adjustments for the mayor’s cabinet because he believes council members were “shamed” into taking a 3% increase for 2024 when they were entitled to a roughly 3.7% increase under city law.

He said Smuckler and Bernabei told council that taking the larger raise “would not look good with the unions come time for negotiations.”

Morris said council members’ pay has been stunted since at least 2010, due to years of pay cuts, taking no raises or accepting minimal increases. Council members currently earn $21,627 a year, city records show. They earned $17,232 in 2009, Canton Repository archives show.

“It’s horrible that we were made to believe that we were doing what was in the best interest for the city by only taking 3%,” Morris said. “… We’ve done our due diligence and I didn’t appreciate this (ordinance).”

Chuck Seifer, a representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2937, told council last week that he didn’t oppose the raises for the mayor’s cabinet. But he asked council to remember his union at contract time next year.

Employees covered by the two city AFSCME units will receive a 2% raises next year, according to their union contracts. Police officers and firefighters already are in line for 3% raises.

All five of the city’s employee union contracts expire in December 2024.

Reach Canton Repository staff writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton City Council approved raises for mayor's cabinet, council clerk