Editorial: Council compensation finally catches up

Kalispell City Council’s vote to more than double their own pay over the next two years seemed outrageous at first blush, and the squeals of “blasphemy” could be heard from every ward as news of the salary increase echoed across the city.

But here, the devil is in the details. After decades without a salary adjustment, the pay hike is more of a correction than a cash grab.

City code maintains that councilors are paid employees to account for the time they put into their work. The public service is undoubtedly time-consuming, with weekly meetings and studying resolutions and proposals late into the night. While many would do the work for free, a stipend is a reasonable way to compensate councilors for the effort it takes to do the job right. It’s why the city began paying councilors in the first place.

The current salaries were set in 1997, with the mayor earning an annual stipend of $9,000 and each of the eight councilors earning $5,000 a year. Since then, the cost of goods and services has doubled as successive councils for three decades refused to address the issue.

The buck finally stopped last week.

Following the council’s vote, the mayor’s salary will increase to $18,664 and councilors’ salaries to $10,369.

Councilor Dustin Leftridge wisely amended the original motion to phase in the pay increase over two years, helping soften the budget blow. The resolution also mandates that any future raises will be capped at 3% and tied to the Consumer Price Index inflation calculator, a standard practice that should have been used all along.

With the adjustments, the total annual payroll for the council and mayor will be about $100,000, roughly 0.5% of the city’s general fund from which the stipends are paid.

The city manager points out that Kalispell councilors will still earn less than their counterparts in other similarly sized Montana cities. Missoula councilors earn $19,000 annually, and Bozeman pays roughly the same. In Helena, commissioners are paid $11,000.

While Kalispell’s modest stipend is helpful, no one is getting rich on the taxpayers’ dime. Still, the optics of councilors voting on their own pay raises are awkward at best, but city code mandates the council make decisions about compensation. Councilor Sam Nunnally’s idea to create a compensation board to handle such decisions is worth a longer discussion.

Before getting too worked up about the council’s pay raise, dive into the numbers and the rationale behind it. It’s anything but excessive. After 30 years of inaction, a phased-in pay increase with a 3% cap on future adjustments is actually quite reasonable and long overdue.