Council, mayor raises get green light

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday approved drafting an ordinance to raise the salaries of city council members and the mayor effective January 2024.

“This topic always seems self-serving when you have a bunch of elected officials up here talking about our salary,” said council member Christie Wood. “I think it's important when you’re dealing with salaries of elected officials you have to keep up with inflation, just like everything else you do.”

By a 6-0 vote, the council said yes to increasing its pay for the first time since 2017 to $1,250 a month, up from $1,000.

It also agreed to increase the mayor’s salary by $250 a month, which would bring it to $2,950 from $2,700.

But the mayor’s pay could go higher.

The mayor’s office last received a raise in 2009. In 2017, then-Mayor Steve Widmyer “requested no increase to the mayoral salary.”

The council wants to know the salary amount Widmyer declined, increase the mayor’s salary to "where it should have been," then add the $250.

"I think there was a number," council member Kiki Miller said.

Wood said Mayor Jim Hammond “inherited something he never agreed to.”

It also approved a cost-of-living escalator clause that would boost elected officials' pay in correlation to city staff raises.

Wood said the council’s and mayor’s pay was below a number of cities in the state.

Council members in Boise receive monthly pay of $2,033; Meridian, $1,266; Post Falls, $856; Hayden $660; and Sandpoint, $408.

Comparative part-time mayor salaries include: Moscow, $2,119; Post Falls, $2,056; Hayden, $1,320; and Sandpoint, $1,224.

Council member Dan English suggested a raise of $350 a month for council members, and said the mayor’s salary could be $3,500.

“I like nice, round numbers,” he said.

Hammond said council raises are “not any different than water rates or sewer rates where you put them off."

“There should be an escalator that takes care of that automatically so you don't get this huge gap,” he said.

Wood said raises are necessary. She said council members serve on numerous committees on their own time and at their own cost.

“I believe it's our role to look out for the people that are going to be in interested in these seats five or 10 years from now," she said. "We can't keep going backward."

Council member Woody McEvers said he recalled being on Planning and Zoning and it was “a big deal” when they got a pizza.

“That was the appreciation for doing the time, doing the service,” he said.

When McEvers was elected to the City Council, he said “it felt awkward” to be paid.

"Not a right or wrong thing," McEvers said. “I so appreciate being able to do this and I never think about the money."

Miller said if a price tag was put on the additional hours they serve away from meetings, it would come out to about $5 an hour.

She said they often pay their own way to attend events on the city’s behalf, and it can be expensive.

“You do pay a lot out of our pocket to have the privilege to serve,” she said. "It is a privilege to serve."