HomeMy WebLinkAboutX-E-02 Mayor and City Council Wages
City Council Memorandum
To: Mayor Fasbender & City Councilmembers
From: City Administrator Dan Wietecha
Date: December 20, 2021
Item: City Council Compensation
Council Action Requested:
Informational update – no action needed at this time.
Background Information:
Compensation of the Mayor and Councilmember positions was last adjusted in 2014 with an effective
date of January 1, 2015. Per state statute, changes to City Council compensation are effective the first of
the year following adoption if that adoption occurs before the General Election date.
At the December 6 City Council meeting, a public hearing was called for December 20. Unfortunately,
we missed the publication deadline to notice the hearing, so the City Council cannot act the draft
ordinance tonight. Because a hearing had been intended plus there had been several questions about the
data, I’m providing a brief update tonight.
In the meantime, we have had interviews with two of the three consultants we are considering for an
employee Compensation & Classification Study, with the third upcoming. Both that we spoke with
indicated that they could include reviewing Mayor and Councilmember compensation during the study
without delaying the study or raising the price. Whether we fold these into the larger study or not, the
Mayor and Councilmember compensation would still require a public hearing and the ordinance would
not take effect until January 2023.
Data:
Presently, Hastings compensates the Mayor at $9,400 and City Councilmembers at $7,200 annually. In
reviewing salaries paid by cities with populations between 15,000 and 35,000 in the 7-county metro area,
the averages are $10,077 for Mayor and $7,693 for Councilmembers.
During the week of November 29, we checked online ordinances for 33 comparable cities with
populations between 15,000 and 35,000 in the 7-county metro area. Of these, 9 did not have readily
reported data, so we followed up with phone inquiries. The City of Shakopee did not respond so was
excluded from the calculation. In all cases, the data reflects current compensation; though some appeared
to have been in place for several years and a couple were set to actually become effective in January
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2022. A couple of the comparison cities had additional “per meeting” pay for special meetings; this was
not included in the analysis.
There are several measures of central tendency. The mean is the sum of the measurements divided by the
number of subjects; it is often called the average. The median is the measurement that falls in the middle
of the ordered sample. The mode is the value that occurs most frequently.
The mean is appropriate for quantitative data; however, it can be highly influenced by outliers or skewed
data. The median is also appropriate for quantitative data but is not affected by outliers. Since this was a
discrete data set without outliers, I used the mean in calculating average wages.
Financial Impact:
Adjustment based on present data review would increase 2023 budget by $3,700.
Committee Discussion:
Not applicable
Attachment:
Wage Data, cities with 15,000 to 35,000 population in 7-county Metro
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Mayor Council
Andover 12000 10000
Anoka 4476 3684
Brooklyn Center 13079 10013
Champlin 9550 6610
Chanhassen 9000 7200
Chaska 9500 7100
Columbia Heights 13800 7800
Cottage Grove 10848 8172
Crystal 10619.84 8169.72
Farmington 8040 7020
Forest Lake 6500 5500
Fridley 10688.53 7761.85
Golden Valley 14071 10531
Ham Lake 6000 4900
Hastings 9400 7200
Hopkins 9751 7472
Inver Grove Heights 11400 8200
Lino Lakes 10112 8500
New Brighton 8600 7000
New Hope 14248 10400
Oakdale 8400 7020
Prior Lake 12059.16 9525
Ramsey 8000 6000
Richfield 12376 9607
Rosemount 9736 7408
Roseville 9300 7020
Savage 10000 7500
Shakopee
Shoreview 10128 7524
South St. Paul 12300 8700
Stillwater 9000 7200
West St. Paul 9878 7927
White Bear Lake 9600 7500
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