Finance Committee okays raises for Bucyrus elected officials

By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com

The Bucyrus Finance Committee approved raises to a number of elected positions after a long stretch of freezes and very intermittent increases.

Council and council president have been on the same salary since 2009, with the last increase before that in 2006. Since 2009, council members have been on a salary of $5619.29. A raise of $500 to $6179.29 was approved to go before City Council for the years of 2016 and 2017. Any adjustment to pay must be made before the term for which it is to take effect.

Part of the reason for this change is in new rules set down by OPERS. The new wage for receiving a full year’s credit toward benefits has been set at $12,000 per year by the state. The proposed raises for Bucyrus would equate to one year’s service equaling a half year’s credit toward benefits and/or pension.

The law director and auditor have been at $43,519.10 per year. It was agreed that they would receive 3-percent raises per year starting in 2016 through 2019. That is the next electoral term for those offices.

The mayor’s salary, which is currently at $44,152, will receive a bump to $50,000, starting in 2016, and receive 3-percent raises per year for the following three years of the same term. This desire is to bring the mayor’s salary more in line with cities of similar sizes and, hopefully, be attractive to a broad pool of candidates.

Safety-Service Director Jeff Wagner asked that the maximum wage for the Access channel videographer be raised as well. He cited additional responsibilities that have been laid on this position as the driving factor behind this reasoning. Currently the maximum wage is $16.53 per hour. A proposal to raise this to $17.50 per hour was approved by the committee.

Two other quick committee meetings followed, with the Economic Development Committee recommending Bobby Carter for another term on the Airport Commission, and recommending Victoria Carmean to assume Russ Billowich’s vacated seat on the Library Board. The Platting Commission recommended that Jan Herman serve another term on the Board of Zoning Appeals.