Sheboygan mayor elected in 2025 to receive $15K salary increase

SHEBOYGAN — Sheboygan Common Council voted Jan. 15 to approve the re-establishment of the mayoral and alderperson salary schedule, with increased pay effective in 2025.

The ordinance, referred by alderpersons Amanda Salazar, 3, and Dean Dekker, 6, was brought forward after a study found the city was low on what it was paying the mayor and alderpersons.

Beyond creating a fair pay schedule for the mayor, Salazar said raising the pay can help attract a wider demographic of candidate beyond the traditional retirees, who may not need the money.

“It's our responsibility to make sure that we provide the compensation appropriately so that we can attract all forms of talent,” she said. “That's the real goal here.”

Salazar said if they want to grow as a community, they must provide the mayor with a livable wage that all demographics can step into and be able to provide for a family, buy a home or support other life decisions.

“We, as a municipality, want to attract talent that's going to help our community thrive,” she said. “And to do that, it also requires putting our money where our efforts are.”

The mayor is currently being paid about $58,000 and will see a $1,000 increase in April. In 2025, the mayoral annual salary will be increased to $75,000, according to Finance Director Kaitlyn Krueger.

Alderpersons are currently earning $6,084, and in 2025 will earn $6,327 with the council president earning an extra $1,000 a year.

While the pay is adjusted, the job description for the mayor will stay as it is.

Salazar said while the city can offer guardrails for the mayoral responsibilities, the duties themselves are state statute.

The city attorney’s office and human resources department are gathering the responsibilities of the mayor so all current and incoming council members are understanding of what goes into the position, she said.

The pay re-evaluation was approved 5-2. Trey Mitchell, 9, and Joe Heidemann, 10, voted against the increase.

During the meeting, Dekker supported the adjustment, saying current Mayor Ryan Sorenson tends to work more than 40 hours a week and acts as the CEO of the city.

Heidemann said while he was willing to discuss the increased salary further, he didn't think it was a good idea right now. He said he’d like to see more research on what other communities with city administrators are paying their mayors.

Looking around the room, Heidemann said, there wasn’t a full council present and the committee meeting that approved the issue be brought to council also didn’t have many people in attendance.

Before the council, the ordinance was approved by the Finance and Personnel Committee Jan. 8. There, alderpersons debated if the proposed increase was ready to be implemented.

While members seemed to agree with Dekker and Salazar’s sentiments that the next mayor should be paid fairly with a livable wage, the amount of the salary was a sticking point.

During the meeting, Mitchell referenced the study done by Carlson Dettmann Consulting cited as one of the reasons behind needing a mayoral raise and which resulted in the pay schedule currently in place by the city to ensure all employees are paid at least $15 an hour.

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Mitchell said the city asked employees then to buy into the process of the adjusted pay because they were breaking down the duties and responsibilities of every job before putting them in a formula to determine where they land on the compensation scale. He said he doesn’t know the same process was being used in the case of the mayor’s pay, despite the study being a major factor in determining the need for a higher salary.

“I feel like, on principle, if we asked for that buy-in because that is the process we followed, we should follow a similar process on this,” he said.

Additionally, he said Sheboygan’s combination of having a full-time mayor and city administrator is relatively unique and he’d like to see more comparisons between what other municipalities that mirror the city pay their mayor.

Heidemann voiced a similar desire to see more equal comparisons to make sure they are getting enough from the position to warrant the salary, especially with a city administrator. He referenced conversations from when the city administrator position was created in 2011 where it was debated on what the mayor’s position and pay should be with the added employee in place taking responsibilities off the mayor's plate.

Salazar countered, saying while the two often work as a team, they are two separate positions and the pay of one position shouldn’t determine the pay of the other.

Mitchell later commented on this point, saying while the positions are not the same, some municipalities may have a different spread of responsibilities, something to take into consideration when looking at the pay.

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As far as looking at other municipalities, Salazar said they have done their homework on the matter and used comparisons between other municipalities to determine the salary amount. Additionally, they’ve reached out to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.

While not all the information from the league has come back, Dekker referenced findings that Racine, which has a city administrator and full-time mayor, pays their mayor $125,000 per year, and West Allis, who has a full-time mayor and city administrator, pays their mayor about $74,000 annually.

Dekker said even looking at other municipalities, there won’t be an exact comparison.

Roberta Filicky-Peneski, 2, said something to consider is the municipalities that are half Sheboygan’s size but pay their mayors substantially more. She said Dekker is right about there not being exact comparisons, but the question is really if they want to compensate the mayor for their job and job description equitably.

One of the reasons this decision was made now and not pushed to allow more time for additional research was elected officials must pass salaries in advance and the committee is required to give the Common Council salary changes like this no later than 13 months prior to the election, Charles Adams, city attorney, said during the committee meeting.

The mayoral seat will be up for re-election in April 2025.

Have a story tip or public interest concern? Contact Sam Bailey at sgbailey@gannett.com or 573-256-9937. To stay up to date on her stories and other news, follow her on X (Twitter) @SamarahBailey.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan mayor elected in 2025 to receive $15K salary increase