TOLEDO, Ohio -
The mayor says some of his top staffers need a pay raise.
Directors, commissioners, department heads, managers, city attorney's are all underpaid the mayor says and he can prove it.
But a pay raise for top executive employees is a political hot potato.
The mayor knows this idea isn't popular but he says it is fair.
"This is a political hot potato that people have been passing and passing and passing for a decade."
Councilwoman Lindsay Webb (D) pretty much laid it out. Without a commission recommending a pay hike, she won't touch it. She told council members at an agenda review meeting, Tuesday, "Failure to engage in that sort of process would lead me to take the easy way out which is to vote no."
Mayor Mike Bell (I) knows he's tossed a political hot potato into council chambers. But he says, Since 1998, top administration executives have received no pay hike because lawmakers refuse to tackle the problem.
Now... The mayor says... Good public servants deserve a pay raise. He told council, "It's the right thing to do for the right reasons."
The administration conducted a study of cities in Ohio and the Midwest and found Toledo's pay range for it's executive staff is 10% to 40% below other towns.
Deputy Mayor Steve Herwat says increasing the pay range is necessary. "It just gives the mayor more flexibility to retain and recruit individuals," he told council. He also admitted the mayor would increase pay at his discretion and that not every executive position could get a pay hike. The administration wants council to approve increasing the pay range for top executives by 20 percent.
The administration says it's lost some good people to the better paying private sector and lost good people who wanted to work for the city but didn't like the low pay.
Council is sympathetic, but a pay hike will cost taxpayers. Councilman George Sarantou (R) says, "My calculations are, for example, if it involves maybe 50 or 60 individuals somewhere around $1.4 million dollars if everyone just got a $12,000 pay raise at some point."
If they get a pay hike, the executives would have to pay their own pension pickup and kick in more for healthcare, just like the unions.
A task force will look into the pay hike idea and there will be public hearings.
But unions are upset because they just gave concessions and now the mayor wants to increase pay for top earners.
The mayor says if we don't increase pay... We won't attract the best people.
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