Senior advisors struggle with salaries – Superior Telegram

SUPERIOR — When Mayor Jim Paine proposed the city’s 2025 budget, the revenue and spending plan called for a 3 percent increase in salaries for city employees.

However, the mayor does not set the salaries of most municipal employees. It is up to the human resources committee to make a recommendation to the municipal council. And some committee members aren’t sure 3 percent is enough when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has outpaced wage growth in recent years.

“The budgetary implication is pretty simple and obvious,” Mayor Jim Paine told the Human Resources Committee on Monday, November 18. “If you fund less than 3%, we will likely have a large and healthy budget surplus. If you finance more than 3%, we risk a budget deficit.”

This is not the only salary issue discussed by councilors this week. Councilors referred a proposal to the Finance Committee on Tuesday, November 19, to increase council salaries by nearly $1,800. This benchmark means advisers are unlikely to see a change in their salary before April 2027.

The 3% increase would benefit the majority of employees, excluding sworn police officers and firefighters who serve in non-supervisory roles and who are part of unions that negotiate their contracts separately.

Councilor Jack Sweeney questioned whether the proposed 3% increase in staff salaries was based on factual information like the regional Consumer Price Index or whether it was based on what the city could afford.

“These are our employees,” Sweeney said. “OK, they are the lifeblood and heart of any organization, including the city.”

Human Resources Director Cammi Janigo said she has done research and informal surveys of other municipalities. With numbers between 2.69% and 3.3%, she said 3% seemed like a good number.

However, police and fire chiefs disagree.

Police Chief Paul Winterscheidt said the city should look at the CPI since 2020, which has increased more than 21%. Municipal salaries have not followed that trend, he said.

In 2021 and 2022, most employees received a 2% salary increase each year, followed by a 5% increase in 2023 and 3% in 2024.

“I think, reasonably, we have to look at the last four years to see what the city has done to match the CPI,” Winterscheidt said. He said employees face real challenges in Superior, where housing costs have increased 15% over the past two years and the cost of food and energy has also increased.

Winterscheidt offered to forgo his salary step increase in 2025 if the committee committed to tying salary increases to the CPI for the next three years.

Fire Chief Camron Vollbrecht said he would be willing to have his own salary frozen for the next four years if it meant the department would be better positioned to remain competitive in the job market.

Councilman Mark Johnson said he would like to see what impact 4%, 5% and 6% increases would have on the 2025 budget before setting a salary.

Sweeney said he preferred to develop guidelines for how to set wages based on economic data.

“I think we should get above 3%…and then move forward and look back,” he said.

However, the committee deferred its decision and asked staff to determine what the budget impact would be if the increases approved for 2025 were 4%, 5% or 6%.

Paine said the CFO has initiated this assessment, but an additional salary increase has multiple implications, including increasing the basis for future salaries and increasing the cost of welfare benefits through the state pension system. Wisconsin.

“Most employees actually get two pay raises,” Paine said. “There’s the cost of living adjustment that we’re talking about now, but there’s also the incremental increases, which are a 10-year plan.”

Most employees receive increments in addition to the annual raise all non-union employees receive, Paine said.

Councilor Garner Moffat has proposed increasing councilor salaries from approximately $7,224 per year to $9,000 effective April 21, 2026.

This delay would allow two election cycles to take place before the increase is implemented. State law does not allow elected officials to raise their own salaries, only those of new members after an election. A salary increase must be set before candidates begin circulating their nomination papers on December 1.

Moffat said he hoped a pay increase would make municipal elections, often uncontested, more competitive and recognize the skills and talent needed to set policy across a broad area of ​​issues.

“I don’t think it’s comfortable for any of us to talk about it, because I don’t think any of us are doing this to get rich here,” Councilman Tylor Elm said.

Councilor Lindsey Graskey said the issue needed more time to be considered.

“I would like to make sure that if we do an increase, whatever it is, it is justified,” said Councilor Brent Fennessey.

Councilwoman Jenny Van Sickle said she did not support the increase.

The board voted to send the issue to the Finance Committee for further evaluation. This means approval could only come after the 2026 deadline and an increase could be implemented at the earliest before 2027.

Shelley Nelson has been a reporter with the Duluth Media Group since 1997 and covered communities and government in Superior and Douglas County for the Duluth News Tribune from 1999 to 2006, and for the Superior Telegram since 2006. Contact her at 715-395 -5022 or Snelson. @superiortelegram.com.