City treasurer gets raise to fix overpayment: Mayor, council members get pay increase, but delay it until June 2011

balow@wvgazette.com

Charleston City Council members fixed a problem in city law Mondayunder which the city treasurer had been overpaid $3,000 a year forthe last eight years.

Council members officially raised the treasurer's annual salaryfrom $15,000 to $18,000 - the amount the treasurer has actually beenearning since 1999.

Mayor Danny Jones also received his raise, to $100,000 a year, andMunicipal Judge Shawn Taylor will earn $35,000 a year starting June18.

And while they were in the spirit of raising salaries, councilmembers gave themselves a raise for the first time since 1983, butdelayed the increase until June 2011. Council pay will rise from $115to $200 for each meeting members attend - a 74 percent increase.

Also Monday, council members passed a resolution that said thecity would not publish employee salaries on the Internet, breaking aprecedent set by the state auditor and Kanawha County Commission.

City Manager David Molgaard said when he asked the city attorneyto draft a pay raise bill several weeks ago, he was aware that thecity was overpaying the treasurer. "It came to my attention that CityCouncil did not approve the $18,000 salary our payroll department hadbeen paying the treasurer." He said he wanted the bill to fix thatproblem.

But the bill uncovered another problem: Municode, the company thathas been publishing the city code for years, had also beenincorrectly showing that City Council members pay was increased to$200 a meeting in 1999.

Although council debated such an increase at length back then,they ended up keeping council pay at $115 per meeting. However, thebill the city attorney drafted copied the incorrect information, andno one noticed the error when the bill was introduced two weeks ago,Molgaard said.

The erroneous bill sparked a debate about a possible pay increase,Molgaard said: "I think there were some who saw the bill asintroduced and felt council should be raised to $200."

In the Finance Committee meeting earlier Monday evening,Councilman John Miller waved a Gazette article written about the billtwo weeks ago. "My paper said [council members were getting] $200 ameeting. I wasn't receiving that," he said. "I thought I was beingcheated."

Longtime Councilwoman Linda Nielsen, about to leave office, saidshe has opposed a raise every time it came up. "I view council ascommunity service. I feel the people just elected have the authorityand community confidence to make that decision," she said. "It's justthe wrong timing."

But others, like Finance Chairman Bobby Reishman, argued to passit now. "There's never a right time," Reishman said. "We haven't donethis in 28 years. There are expenses involved."

Councilman Ed Talkington agreed: "We're going to get slammedwhenever we do this."

Eight council members - Nielsen, Mary Jean Davis, Will Hanna, JackHarrison, Pat Jones, Jerry Ware, Marc Weintraub and Bob White - votedto remove the council pay raise from the main pay raise bill, whichpassed easily.

Council also overwhelming passed the measure against publishingemployee salaries, listed on the agenda as "A resolution in regard tobeing able to obtain particular compensation information throughmeans other than the Internet."

Councilwoman Ditty Markham said salary information is embarrassingfor employees who make far less than those in the private sector."It's not the public who looks at it, it's other employees," shesaid.

Charlie Loeb said although the city publishes detailed budgetdata, he could see no public benefit from publishing salaries.

Harry Deitzler, one of just three who opposed the measure, said itwas a bad move to make it hard for the public to see how its taxdollars are being spent. Mayor Jones and council member ArchieChestnut also voted against the move.

"I don't think we should present artificial barriers," Deitzlersaid. "People can find virtually every kind of public information onthe Internet. To pass a law to restrain public information I think isthe wrong thing to do."

To contact staff writer Jim Balow, use e-mail or call 348-5102.