(Cleveland)- The compensation for the mayor and city council members was addressed during Monday night’s Cleveland City Council meeting.
City Administrator Kevin Harris told the council that in the spring of this year the council began to address areas of updates, like the city charter, and zoning issues and he said he noticed during that process that in looking at the compensation for the Mayor and City Council Members the last time that had been amended was in 1999.
Harris noted that during the last quarter of a century, the cost of everything has risen but, the compensation for the top city officials has remained the same.
Currently council members are awarded an annual stipend and a $50 per meeting payment. Harris said he would like to recommend changing the annual stipend to a monthly amount of $400 for each councilman and $600 for the mayor and that the per-meeting compensation increase to $150, with a limit of five meetings per month.
Harris noted that the council has not asked for this increase it was a staff recommendation, he also said:
“I’m going to say this because I’m not sitting up there, but the time and the effort and the care and the public service they put into this. I know that this is still not fair, but they are doing this for public services for the right reason. But you ought to at least get your gas money to come here and under the current situation, they’re not even doing that.”
Harris told the council said he would like for them to consider the recommendation in a January meeting and if approved the new compensations would not go into effect until January of 2026.
