Council Approves Raises For Elected Officials, Administrators

Milwaukee City Hall. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

If they’re reelected in the spring, elected officials in the City of Milwaukee will receive their first pay raise since 2008.

The Common Council, on a 9-6 vote Wednesday, endorsed a 15% raise for all elected officials. By the same margin, the council endorsed raises, many of which are even larger, for approximately six dozen of the city’s top non-elected employees, but not without first cutting their proposed size.

The raises come approximately six months after the city was awarded a 2% sales tax to address a looming fiscal crisis, the optics of which drew concern from Alderman Scott Spiker and others who voted against the raises. But administration officials previously said the raises were necessary to attract and retain employees and only came after general city employees received raises.

After the April election, the mayor’s salary will grow from $147,335 to $169,436 and council members will see their salaries grow from $73,222 to $84,205. The city’s other elected officials (comptroller, treasurer, city attorney, municipal judges) will also see raises. The elected officials will also receive annual raises of up to 3%, if general employees receive the same or greater amount.

The non-elected raises in a number of cases were to be for an even larger percentage, but a unanimously adopted amendment led by Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs cut down their size by approximately $700,000 by striking a minimum recruitment rate provision.

According to a spreadsheet attached to the initial proposal, the fire and police chiefs would have seen their wages boosted from $151,785 to $199,268 (31%), but a spreadsheet circulated Wednesday says that increase is planned to stop at $182,927 (20.5%). The Commissioner of Public Works was to go from $149,617 to $208,152 (39%), but ended at $172,573 (15%) after the amendment. Department of Employee Relations director Harper Donahue, IV, who led the administration’s advocacy for the proposal during a hearing last week, saw his salary grow from $150,282 to $165,310 (10%), instead of $173,949 (16%).

The non-elected raises in most cases are still larger than what was originally contemplated. A September proposal, which leaked in October, was to give effectively 10% raises to the non-elected officials. Last week, Donahue attributed the larger raises, which add more than $1 million to the $2.9 million annual cost, to a more thorough review of the individual situations and an expansion of those included in the list. Wednesday’s amendment places the annual cost at approximately $2.2 million.

Voting for the raises were council members Coggs, Andrea Pratt, Mark Chambers, Jr., Jonathan Brostoff, Khalif Rainey, Larresa Taylor, Marina Dimitrijevic, Russell W. Stamper, II and José G. Pérez.

Voting against the increase were Spiker, Robert Bauman, Lamont Westmoreland, JoCasta Zamarripa, Mark Borkowski  and Michael Murphy.

Only Spiker spoke to the merits of the issue Wednesday, reiterating that his opposition stems primarily from the timing with the sales tax. Murphy and others had previously indicated that they were in support of a raise for the city’s elected officials, but were uncomfortable with the size of the increase.

For more on the prior discussion of the issue, and a new job evaluation component included with the legislation, see our coverage from last week.

Rainey is the only member who voted for the package that isn’t running for reelection. Murphy and Borkowski aren’t running for reelection and voted against the deal.

Of those voting for the raises, only Brostoff and Coggs face challengers. Three of the officials voting against the agreement, Bauman, Westmoreland and Zamarripa, face challengers.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson has endorsed the raises and is expected to sign it into law.

“There have been extensive discussions on the pay plan. The Mayor is supportive of the Council’s actions,” said a spokesperson for Johnson.

A copy of the non-elected compensation change, prepared by the Legislative Reference Bureau for council members, is available on Urban Milwaukee in Excel format. It includes assumptions about residency and other factors. The second-from-right column is what was put into effect by the amendment.

Related Legislation: File 231095, File 231374, File 231352