Detroit panel OKs raises for city officials: Detroit Free Press

[March 31, 2015]  By Serena Maria Daniels
 
 DETROIT (Reuters) - Just months after Detroit officially exited the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a panel on Monday recommended raises of 2.5 percent for city council members and the city clerk, to start next fiscal year, a newspaper reported.

The Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission, which determines whether elected officials can receive raises, voted unanimously on Monday night to support the pay hikes, the Detroit Free Press said.

The move would bring the salary for the clerk and council members to $78,761 from $76,840 and the council president's to $82,776 from $80,757, the paper said. City Council President Brenda Jones and City Clerk Janice Winfrey made the request earlier in March.

A few dozen people protested at the commission's meeting this month, arguing that council pay was already three times that of the average Detroiter.

The compensation commission's recommendation takes effect unless it is rejected by the City Council by a two-thirds vote, the paper said.

Commission chairman Buzz Thomas told reporters after the meeting that the panel did not want to give elected officials salary hikes bigger than those given to other city employees.

"We thought that it was really important to follow the budget that was coming out of bankruptcy," Thomas said, according to footage published by broadcaster WXYZ.

Representatives for the commission could not be immediately reached on Monday night.

The troubled city officially exited bankruptcy in December, but remains under the supervision of a state-appointed financial review commission until 2019.

Winfrey's salary is about 43 percent below the average of peers in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and other cities, according to a report this month by Detroit's human resources director that compared Detroit salaries to those elsewhere.

Mayor Duggan's salary of $166,487 is 11 percent below the average, the report said, but he is not seeking a raise and his salary was not part of the panel's recommendation.

Council members took a pay cut of 10 percent in 2010. Kevyn Orr, the official who oversaw the restructuring, handed raises of 5 percent in mid-2014 to salaried workers, including the council and mayor, which were nearly offset by a required 4 percent pension plan contribution.

(Editing by Curtis Skinner, Jeremy Laurence and Clarence Fernandez)

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