Elected Officials Pay Hike Wins First Endorsement, Opposition

Milwaukee City Hall. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A proposal to boost pay for city elected officials by 15% received its first endorsement Wednesday. But not without opposition from multiple council members, and one member countering that the council was being a good steward by not seeking an even larger raise.

The mayor’s salary would grow from $147,335 to $169,436 and council members would see their salaries grow from $73,222 to $84,205. The city’s other elected officials (comptroller, treasurer, city attorney, municipal judges) would also see raises. The proposal would also grant large raises to dozens of other high-ranking city employees.

The Finance & Personnel Committee members voted 3-2 to advance the proposal to the full council. Chair Marina Dimitrijevic, Milele A. Coggs and Mark Chambers, Jr. voted for the proposal. Aldermen Scott Spiker and Michael Murphy voted in opposition. The full council is slated to review the proposal, which would cost approximately $2.9 million annually, on Jan. 17.

Both Murphy and Spiker brought up that, at minimum, the optics looked bad that the proposal was coming after a new sales tax was instituted. “That is what’s giving me pause. The timing of this is obviously problematic,” said Spiker. Both mentioned that without the sales tax the city would be working to lay off hundreds of employees.

“That’s fair,” said Department of Employee Relations director Harper Donahue, IV. But he said it was two different discussions. “This process began before you all made the vote to access that sales tax… Regardless if we got this sales tax, this was in motion.”

Chambers said Spiker’s logic dictated that no employees should have received raises. “We had the opportunity, as [Donahue] mentioned, to go over $100,000. We chose not to because that’s being good stewards and we put our general city employees in front of us as the leaders that we are,” said Chambers, first elected in November 2022. “I’m not trying to be apologetic, or tone deaf, or anything of that nature.”

In a public statement after the vote, Chambers said he wasn’t taking the vote lightly and his comment was only intended to be taken in response to Spiker’s comments.

Donahue, in laying out his rationale for the proposal, noted that elected officials haven’t received a raise since 2008 and a peer city evaluation led by Minneapolis in 2023 had him considering recommending council pay be boosted to $95,000-$100,000. A September report, prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau, said the council member’s salary would be $88,377 if adjusted annually on a cost-of-living-adjustment basis, as federal legislator salaries are.

Following the Great Recession and Act 10, general city employees also were squeezed for years said Donahue. “From 2009 to 2022 general city employees received a total of 4.5% in across-the-board wage increases,” said Donahue, contrasting it with the 29.55% raise members of the Milwaukee Police Association have received through collective bargaining. Faced with spiking vacancy rates, the city has pushed through several position-by-position market studies in recent years, which Donahue said have, on average, boosted the wages of the positions studied by 20%.

The city’s human resources head cited the Department of Public Works (DPW) as an example of the benefits of the market studies and across-the-board raises, with the vacancy rate reaching 25% in recent years and now trending down to 10%. Ninety former employees applied to return to the department in 2023, double the rate of 2022 and even higher than those of earlier years said Donahue. “DPW has seen immediate returns on the city’s investment,” he said.

Spiker suggested the cost of the elected official and executive increases would cause service cuts elsewhere in the future, but budget director Nik Kovac said that was already happening because of vacancies. “You are going to have unpredictable service reductions,” said the budget director. “We can’t afford to do it, but we also can’t afford not to do it.”

Murphy expressed concerns with the process, including the fact that he discussed a smaller version of the proposal in September with Donahue, but a larger version was filed Monday. “I’m not happy with the way it was handled at all, but I understand the rationale [of the raises],” he said. He later said he supports a smaller raise.

Donahue said the proposal’s cost grew by more than $1 million because the initial idea was to award the executive positions only a 10% raise. “Additionally, there were a couple of positions that were added,” he said. Human resources manager Andrea Knickerbocker said additional studies of the IT department and other areas also pushed up the cost.

A number of the highest-paid positions would see major raises multiple times the 10% figure. According to a spreadsheet attached to the proposal, the fire and police chiefs would see their wages boosted from $151,785 to $199,268 (31%). The Commissioner of Public Works would see an even larger raise, going from $149,617 to $208,152 (39%), and the heads of the Department of Neighborhood Services and Milwaukee Health Department would see their pay boosted to $206,091. Donahue’s salary would grow from $150,282 to $173,949 (16%).

Common Council President José G. Pérez endorsed a companion file to the proposal that would establish “accountability requirements” for many of the executive positions. “I am in agreement that people should get paid for the work they do,” he said. “I can’t see a better opportunity to take a look at the rest of the systems that are in place.”

The council president cited issues with the length of recruitment periods and the Department of Neighborhood Services transition to being only reactive to complaints about residential violations instead of proactive. “Right now it’s not working,” he said of departments addressing issues. The accountability requirements would require mayoral appointees to submit annual reports and receive feedback from each council member on job performance.

Donahue said he supported the measure as a “check in” procedure and welcomed it for a less visible review of his own performance. “I absolutely hate this table. I hate coming before you all,” said the HR director of speaking under the lights in the City Hall committee room. He said he favored being available for conversations throughout the week.

Coggs said she saw how residents think the sales tax and raises were connected. She also hopes Donahue and others continue to work on making the city a more attractive place to work beyond just financial compensation, including an employee gym or remote work benefits.

Second Raise Included In Proposal

Starting in 2025, elected officials would receive an additional raise if they give other employees a raise through the city budget.

An amendment would grant elected officials a maximum 3% annual raise, if general city employees also received a 3% or greater raise in the same year. Should the general raise not reach 3%, as it rarely has, the amount would be reduced to the percentage raise given to general city employees. A previous version included no cap, which is believed to violate a state law that prohibits elected officials from instituting a pay increase during their current term.

Based on a list of seven sponsors and Dimitrijevic’s support Wednesday, the larger pay proposal has the minimum eight votes necessary to pass. The raise would go into effect after the April election.

The listed co-sponsors are Khalif Rainey, Coggs, Russell W. Stamper, II, Larresa Taylor, Jonathan Brostoff, Andrea Pratt and Chambers. Rainey, the lead sponsor, was present throughout the meeting Wednesday, but never spoke. He is the lone sponsor not running for reelection.

Under state law, the council needs to approve the pay increase before the spring election.

UPDATE: The Chambers quote was expanded after publication.

Related Legislation: File 231095, File 231374, File 231352