Ogden City Elected Officials Seek a 10% Pay Hike, Whilst The Standard-Examiner Dissents

Sodden query to the Ogden City Council:"What's the matter? Are you suffering from a self-esteem problem?"

Here's an interesting Ogden City-centered Standard-Examiner story, which we've kept on the back-burner for a week or so, as we awaited further story developments. "Ogden City thinks it’s time for their elected officials to get a raise," SE news sleuth Mitch Shaw reported last Friday.

• Ogden proposing 10 percent raises for elected officials

Specifically "[t]he city is proposing a 10 percent cost of living and merit increase for its mayor position and seven council seats. If instituted, the pay increases would go into effect January 2016, just after the November 2015 election where the mayor’s position and three council seats are up for grabs, according to Mr. Shaw's above-linked 10/31/12 report.

Cutting to the chase, "If the proposed 10 percent pay raises are approved, the mayor’s salary would increase to $119,742. The council chair would make $15,272, the vice chair would make $14,176, with remaining council members making $13,068"

Surely as the night follows the day, the Standard-Examiner editorial board yesterday followed up on this brewing story with yesterday's editorial, assuming the role of the tight-fisted Ogden City watchdog. "Ogden should not increase the salaries of its mayor and city council members by 10 percent. That is simply too high a raise in today’s economic environment," says the Standard-Examiner.

• Our View: No to a 10 percent raise

For those finicky readers among us, we provide the link to the Ogden City Council's October 28 packet, where the details of this salary-hike proposal are laid out in full.  It's an interesting read, demonstrating that city officials and staff have definitely done their homework:  

• 10/28 City Council Work Session Packet

By way of background we ran through this whole rigmarole in 2010, the last time Ogden elected officials' salary increases were on the table, with our article series treating the subject:

• 2010 WCF Ogden City Salary hike stories

Our take? As we unequivocally said in 2010, we believe "(Ogden) Council salaries... remain at rock bottom among all Utah cities which which are governed under the Utah mayor-council form."  In this respect, therefore, we differ with at least part of the SE's cautious assessment of this measure. Current Council salaries still remain "way" too low, in our opinion, and will still remain out of kilter, compared to Council salaries in other comparable Utah cities, even with the proposed new pay increases enacted in full. Thus once again, we'll ask our Ogden City Council, just as we did in 2010: "What's the matter?  Are you suffering from a self-esteem problem?"

As for Mayor Mike's current $108,856 salary (plus benefits), we think our Ogden City Mayor is doing just fine, compensation-wise.  And thus, and in that respect, we agree with the tight-fisted Standard-Examiner, in arguing that a 10% pay increase is WAY "too much, in this economy.".

So what are your own takes on this, O Gentle Ones?

The world-wide web eagerly awaits your ever-savvy comments.

Standard-Examiner Guest Commentary: Ogden Officials Deserve Higher Pay

What's wrong with the City Council... are they suffering from a low self esteem problem?

Mayor Godfrey has served at the same pay since he took office a decade ago. He, along with the help of many others, have done a terrific job of implementing his goal to define Ogden as the world's high-adventure capitol. He tirelessly recruits companies from every industry, improves access to trails and other outdoor amenities, has increased tourism and made Ogden a great place to work, play, and live. His decision to not accept the proposed increase should be viewed as his commitment to the residents of Ogden to do the job on the terms he accepted when we were all worried about Y2K.

Standard-Examiner Guest Commentary
Ogden officials deserve higher pay
June 24, 2010

Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, it appears that there remain at least a few lonely lemmings who still remain convinced that Boss Godfrey, the same Boss Godfrey who also delivered to Ogden taxpayers the Junction Money Pit, and the languishing Leshemville Firetrap, is doing a bang-up job, even as Ogden City's "visionary," "can do" Mayor completes his tenth year of running up Ogden City debt:

• Ogden officials deserve higher pay

We don't know where the Standard-Examiner finds such starry-eyed folks as guest commentator Ryan Christiansen... The Godfrey Campaign 2010 letter mill, we suppose.

Strange timing of this guest piece, by the way... inasmuch as the City Council already passed the 2010-11 fiscal year budget, containing the very salary provisions Mr. Christiansen touts in this morning's SE guest editorial... two days ago:

• Ogden 2011 budget gets OK, includes pay raises

And just as we feared, the new budget salary package brings the Mayor's salary ($108,857) up to the middle of the range of mayoral salaries among the five mayor-council Utah municipal governments, while Council salaries ($11,880 base salary) remain, even with the new pay increases, at rock bottom among all Utah cities which which are governed under the Utah mayor-council form:

• Comparable Salaries of Elected Officials in Utah Mayor-Council Form of Government Cities

Although we disagree with Mr. Christiansen in his contention that Boss Godfrey is a strong performer, we do concur with his major premise that Ogden elected officials deserve higher pay, in which connection we ask the obvious question:

What's wrong with the City Council... are they suffering from a low self esteem problem?

Who will be the first to comment?

Standard-Examiner: Ogden Looks at Salary Options

As we said before, Ogden City Council, don't sell yourselves short

We just perused Scott Schwebke's morning article wherein he reports on the treatment of the major item on last night's city council calender, the Ogden City payroll, which item has now been continued to June 22 , for a full public hearing:

• Ogden looks at salary options

Strangely, somebody (The administration do ya think?) proposes that the Ogden City Mayor's salary should be increased increased by $28,000, which would make the Mayor's base salary ($108,857) slightly higher than the median mayoral salary amongst all five Utah Cities which are organized under Utah Mayor-Council Form of government.

Weirdly though, the City Council's proposed base salary increases would fall about $2,000 short of even the rock bottom of Utah Mayor-Council Form Of Government cities.

Check out our salary data reference point:

• Comparable Salaries of Elected Officials in Utah Mayor-Council Form of Government Cities

We completely agree with Dorrene Jeske's take on this! Elective officer salaries in Ogden City should emulate Murray City, a city that's comparable in population and other key factors:

Murray
Dan Snarr - Mayor - $88,192
Jeff Dredge - Council Person - $13,754
Darren V. Stam - Council Person - $13,754
Jim Brass - Council Person - Not available
Jared A. Shaver - Council Person - $13,754
Krista Dunn - Council Person - $13,754

As we said before, Ogden City Council, don't sell yourselves short.

Standard-Examiner: More Boss Godfrey Show Boatin'

Go for it, Ogden City Council... If you jack up your salaries to Salt Lake City levels, believe us, your WCF Blogmeister won't complain one danged bit.

Fascinating Scott Schwebke story in this morning's Standard-Examiner, reporting on an item on Tuesday night's Emerald City Council agenda, wherein, among other things, the Council will consider salary increases for elected municipal officials, themselves included. The headline of course focuses on what else? More Boss Godfrey show-boatin'; that's what:

• Ogden City Mayor Matthew Godfrey: No raise for me

This salary increase issue has been floating around for quite a while; you can read a couple of our previous articles on the subject here and here.

Mr. Schwbke reports this morning that council staff has been doing some serious research on the issue:

The proposed pay increase for mayor and the city council is tied to a survey comparing Ogden to five other cities that also have a council-mayor form of government, said City Council Chairwoman Caitlin K. Gochnour. Those cities are Sandy, Salt Lake City, Provo, Logan and Murray.

Being the curious type, we immediately zeroed in on the council's online Meeting Agenda Packet in the hope of finding some info on these cross-city salary comparisons. Unfortunately we got no help there, inasmuch as the packet is entirely devoid of any of the tantalizing raw cross-comparison data.

Undeterred, we immediately navigated over to one of the most useful Utah databases on the web, utahsright.com, from which we spent about an hour cutting and pasting, in order to compile a "quick and dirty" salary comparison page of our very own:

• Comparable Salaries of Elected Officials in Utah Mayor-Council Form of Government Cities

Check it out, O Gentle Ones!

Decide for yourselves whether the salaries of our hard-working Emerald City elected officials are due for a sharp increase.

We're short of time this morning, so we'll skip our own expansive editorializing on this. Having said that however, we will offer this pitch: Ogden City Council members put in full time effort for what's compensated as a nominally part-time job. If you compare the current proposed compensation for our own city council with councils of Sandy, Salt Lake and Murray, it's obvious to us that even under the current proposal, the Council will be selling itself short. Go for it, Ogden City Council! If you jack up your salaries to Salt Lake City levels, you can take our word for it... you won't hear a peep of a complaint from your WCF blogmeister.

As for Godfrey, who cares? If he won't take the extra 28 grand, he can donate it to a worthy project of his own choosing, no? We've heard Boss Godfrey's Velodrome Fund is accepting private donations and remains a mite short of funds.

We're posting this article on the fly... gotta go. But don't forget to lodge your own ever-savvy comments and observations.