Mansfield council members will receive another pay raise months after transparency questions
Mansfield City Council members will receive a pay raise under the city’s 2024 budget.
The change comes months after city council members took heat for an alleged lack of transparency in receiving payments for their service.
In February, the council voted to give its members $1,000-a-month payments for their work as elected officials. That number increased to $2,000-a-month Monday night when Mansfield officials passed the city’s budget.
City code in Mansfield has allowed council members to accept pay for their work since 1979. Officials were not successful in getting council members to accept payments until earlier this year, city manager Joe Smolinski said in February when payments were first approved.
At the time, officials denied claims from residents about the payment passage not being transparent, and said they followed proper procedures when deciding to pay council members.
“To say they don’t give anything up, nonsense,” Smolinksi during a February council meeting. “To say that they make too much money, just nonsense. To say there’s a lack of transparency is nonsense.”
Though the city council only meets twice a month, council members in Mansfield often do work beyond those meeting hours, Smolinski wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday.
“I recommended this stipend because, while it cannot replace the revenue and family time, for a large segment of our population it may make serving on City Council at least possible to dedicate the countless hours it takes to do this job to the level Mansfield deserves,” Smolinski wrote.
Other Tarrant County cities of comparable size to Mansfield like Keller, Bedford and Euless do not pay their city council members. North Richland Hills council members are paid $50 per meeting.
Pay debates for council members have taken place across the county.
Voters turned down a request from Fort Worth’s council members and mayor to raise their pay during the May 2022 elections. Had raises passed, council members’ pay would have gone from $25,000 to $76,727 a year. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker’s pay would have increased from $29,000 to $99,653.
Arlington’s city council members and Mayor Jim Ross are paid $2,400 and $3,000 a year, respectively, for their duties.
Arlington’s council turned down the opportunity to be paid more in September 2021 even after claims swirled about more people being willing to participate in local government if there were raises.
Mansfield city council members did not ask for the pay raises, Mayor Michael Evans told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday, but they appreciate the city manager, staff and others in the community who have supported the council’s work.
Several council members told the Star-Telegram in February that they gave their council pay to charity. Evans previously said he gives the money to his church, Bethlehem Baptist.
When asked if his extra $1,000 a month would go to charity, Evans said all the money he and his wife bring in ends up in the same pot. The family gives around $50,000 a year to charity, he said.
