Pay would more than double for Beaufort mayor, council members, encourage more candidates
A proposed raise would more than double the salaries of Beaufort’s mayor and council members —to $15,000 and $12,000, respectively — in 2023. The city also is planning a salary adjustment for more than 100 employees that will cost nearly $150,000 and become effective in December.
City officials argue the pay of elected officials is long overdue and low compared to other cities. Bumping it would make the job more attractive, they say, for younger people who are underrepresented on the council as it stands now.
The raises for employees, they say, will make the city’s salaries more competitive.
Council members voted 5-0 to OK the raises for themselves and the employees earlier this month. The council will vote on final approval Nov. 30.
The recommendations are included in an employee compensation study completed for the city by Evergreen Solutions LLC. The city does the studies every few years, City Manager Bill Prokop said.
The study deemed that the minimum pay rate for 46 employees was low. Most of those employees are firefighters, police officers or employees in public works.
In addition, the study recommends a 2% pay increase for another 112 employees to cover the cost of inflation.
The proposed increases of those 158 employees will cost $117,804, plus benefits of $29,656, for a total of $147,460 for the remainder of this fiscal year. Money from the city’s general fund would be used to pay for the increases, not new revenue, Prokop said.
If approved, the increase for the employees would go into effect in December.
Prokop said the increases for the employees are necessary to keep the city’s pay competitive in the market.
The study also recommended increasing the pay of elected officials, which Prokop said was low. The mayor’s pay would increase to $15,000 from $6,000. The four council members would get $12,000 a year, up from $4,800.
By comparison, Bluffton council members make $11,000 a year and the mayor, $16,500, while Hilton Head’s council makes $12,800 and the mayor earns $25,000.
The average salaries of council members in eight municipalities, surveyed as part of the study, was $13,900, Prokop said. Salaries for Beaufort City Council members, he added, had not been increased in 15 years.
The salary increase for Beaufort council members, if approved, could not take effect until Jan. 1, 2023, after the November 2022 election.
Councilman Philip Cromer said he supported the increase for the city employees but not for the elected officers, noting the proposal called for doubling the salaries. Salaries, he said, should be adjusted on a cost-of-living basis, Cromer said, adding that what council members earn now is enough. “But that’s just me,” Cromer said, “I’m not running.”
Seats held by Cromer and Mike McFee are up for election in November 2022.
But other council members said the substantial raise for elected officials is justified.
“It just may be an incentive to get some younger folks to run for office and hopefully make the government a little more diverse on the council,” Councilman Mitch Mitchell said.
The increase, he said, may be close to what a prospective younger candidate gets paid for that part-time job they have on top of their full-time work.
Mayor Stephen Murray, at 40 the youngest person on the council, said increased compensation must be part of the solution if the city is serious about attracting younger candidates to local government. As it stands now, he said, unless you are retired, independently wealthy or “crazy like me” the current salary precludes a large segment of the population from serving. “I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request,” Murray said of the proposed salary increases.
As for the employee raises, Murray said, they deserved them, especially after the past year-and-a-half during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 3:36 PM.
