Mayor Mark Stodola responded to me today on a report that he’d talked to city officials about a pay raise for his last few weeks in office, a change that could improve his coming retirement benefits. He said the report wasn’t true.
He said:
No Max, I have not asked for a pay raise. Your gossipers are wrong again. For my wife to receive a spousal benefit an ordinance is required. As for following the law on comparable pay, the city attorney wrote back in 2013 that the Board was not following it. They declined to fix it then, so I doubt they would do it now. Have a nice day.
I told him that three city officials had told me of his interest in a pay increase, one of whom, a member of the City Board, said Stodola specifically mentioned a change to make his pay more comparable to that of City Manager Bruce Moore, as the law provides. Stodola makes $160,000, Moore $191,000.
He responded:
I have not talked to 3 employees as it would be a board decision. I did talk to Tom about the need for an ordinance which the statute requires for their to be a spousal death benefit should I predecease her, standard stuff for retirement plans,and if he thought the board was following the law on comparable salary.
No ordinance has been filed relative to Stodola pay or benefits and none is on the agenda for next week’s meeting. Perhaps my three sources were confusing a question about a retirement benefit, but all directly spoke specifically of a pay increase. It would take six votes of the City Board, however, and, as Stodola noted, the Board has rejected that idea before.
The only gossip of which I’m aware re the mayor was the recent report that he intends to claim unused vacation and other leave time for a lump sum payment when he leaves the office at the end of the year. He has confirmed that and records indicate he expects at least $173,000.