Erie City Council approves $4K boost in members' yearly pay, starting in 2024

Members of Erie City Council are poised to receive their most significant pay raise in nearly four decades, starting in 2024.

City Council on Wednesday night voted 5-2 to approve a resolution, sponsored by first-term Councilwoman Jasmine Flores, that will increase the yearly pay of City Council members from $6,000 a year to $10,000 annually, a 67% increase.

Flores’ resolution also asked for an increase in the pay of City Council’s president from $7,500 annually to $12,000, a 60% boost.

Annual salaries for the city’s seven council members — who serve part-time — have not increased since 1986. Council members are also eligible for city-paid health insurance benefits.

The increase would take effect in January 2024 for those elected to City Council in November 2023; it would take effect in January 2026 for those who win council seats in November 2025. 

That means none of the all-Democratic City Council's seven current members would see pay increases during their current terms.

Besides Flores, council members Ed Brzezinski, Michael Keys, Mel Witherspoon and Chuck Nelson voted for the pay increases.

Council President Liz Allen and Councilman Maurice Troop voted against them.

Council seats held by Brzezinski, Witherspoon and Keys are on the ballot again in 2023.

Flores was elected to City Council in November 2021 and began serving her first four-year term in January.  Her seat, as well as those currently held by Allen, Nelson and Troop will be on the ballot again in 2025.

So six of the seven Democrats currently serving on City Council, including Flores, would have to win reelection to see a pay boost. Witherspoon is barred from running for City Council again in 2023 because of the city’s three-consecutive-terms limit.

Flores' resolution originally asked to raise the yearly council salary from $6,000 to $12,000 and the salary of council's president from $7,500 to $14,000.

However, the resolution was amended during council's pre-meeting caucaus to lower those proposed increases.

Council will have to officially approve both raises later via ordinance because the move involves the appropriation of city funds.

Flores was able to win majority support her pay hike proposal after similar attempts by councilmembers failed multiple times over the last 36 years. Pay increases for City Council members were most recently proposed in December 2021 by Brzezinski, but his measure failed by a 4-3 vote.

Erie City Council:Pay raises proposed for council members, starting in 2024

It was a different story on Wednesday night.

Flores, from the council dais, argued that the pay increase is warranted, given what she called a decades-long "pay freeze," and the amount of work and study that council members put in.

"This job needs to be compensated better," said Flores, a direct support professional at Supportive Living Services, an Erie nonprofit that assists clients with developmental disabilities.

Flores also argued that low compensation for an elected position that requires full-time commitment in terms of preparation, community appearances, meetings and other obligations likely keeps many qualified candidates from considering a City Council run.

"Everything is baby steps and like pulling teeth when we have been behind the times for the last 40-plus years," Flores said. "But the changes are coming for the benefit of all of our community."

Allen said she opposed the raises, in part, because she saw them as too extreme. She said "periodic" and smaller raises would be a better move.

Of the current $6,000 yearly council salary, Allen said: "Current City Council members knew that was the pay when they ran."

During the public comment portion of Wednesday night's meeting, council heard from citizens both in favor of and against the pay increases.

In other business, Erie Mayor Joe Schember presented the city's mid-year financial report to council. That report shows the city projecting a budget surplus of roughly $1.2 million by Dec. 31.

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNflowers.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Pay raises are coming to Erie City Council starting in 2024