Councilmember questions openness of city salaries

The close of Monday night’s Williamsburg City Council meeting featured a verbal sparring session of sorts between City Councilman Donnie Witt and various city officials over the issue of pay rates for the mayor and city employees.
Witt told the council that several residents have approached him asking him what the mayor and city council members made.
Witt said he was able to tell people that the city council members made $2,400 per year, but that he couldn’t tell them what the mayor made.
“They said, ‘Well, what does the mayor make?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. It’s an open record.’ They said they couldn’t find it. A lot of people said they couldn’t find it,” Witt said.
“Who’s they?” asked Mayor Roddy Harrison.
“Not just one, several people,” Witt replied without saying specifically who the people were.
He said the copy of city records several people received as part of an open record request had all the salary information for city workers lumped together.
City Clerk Theresa Black said she has replied to open record requests, and supplied information relating to salaries for city workers that was requested.
“How can you tell what one makes?” Witt asked.
“Because it is broken down per employee,” Black replied.
“There have been three different people who got the same records and they said you can’t tell what anybody makes,” Witt said.
Black said the information is there in the record.
Harrison asked if the people asking Witt about the salaries thought the mayor was making too much money.
“I actually have noting to hide,” Harrison said without actually revealing his salary during the meeting.
“They aren’t saying you have something to hide. They just want to know what it is,” Witt said. “I’m just trying to take a little slack off you, but do whatever you want to. Corbin, London and all of them say they don’t care to show you what they’ve got.”
“Every time we have been asked for anything, we have done nothing but show it,” Harrison replied.
Following Monday night’s meeting, Harrison said he didn’t say what his annual salary was during the meeting because he’s wasn’t certain of the exact figure, but said his office would supply the figure Tuesday morning after looking it up.
Black said Tuesday that Harrison makes $32,998.20 annually.
Witt noted the Corbin Mayor makes $12,000 per year, and the Corbin City Commission members make about $6,400 per year.
“London is less than that,” Witt added.
Corbin City Hall officials said city commissioners there make $6,000 annually. In June, the Corbin City Commission set the city manager’s salary at $71,854.38 annually.
Councilman Paul Estes said that Corbin has a different form of government that includes a city commission and a city manager.
“The mayor in Corbin can make a motion or second a motion to vote. He is not the executive authority. The city manager is,” Estes said. “I think we all understand that it is an interesting time and things get brought up now that weren’t important before.”
Estes and Councilwoman Laurel West said they thought the mayor’s present salary was set about 10 years ago.
According to city records, through December 1993, the mayor received a $500 a month salary, and the city administrator a $1,849.85 monthly salary.
In January 1994, the positions of city administrator and mayor were combined as were the two salaries, which resulted in a $2,349.85 monthly salary for the mayor or $28,198.20 annually.
In April 1998, the city council approved a $400 monthly pay increase for the mayor, which took effect in July 1998 resulting in a $2,749.85 monthly pay rate, which is still in effect.
In May 1998, the city council voted to raise their pay from $10 to $200 monthly. The pay increase took effect in July 1998, and has remained the same since.
Estes added Harrison could have asked for up to a $20,000 a year pay raise in May based upon the city’s size, but that he didn’t do it.
During Monday’s meeting, Witt and Harrison also discussed sidewalk replacement work on Fifth Street.
Witt asked why the sidewalk was being torn up and replaced when as far as he knew it was in pretty good shape. He also questioned why the sidewalk there was being replaced when the one in front of the city school was in worse shape.
Harrison said portions of the sidewalk on Fifth Street were in bad need of repair, and that steps on it were being replaced with a ramp as part of the repaving process.
He said the city was pursuing a Safe Schools Route grant to pay for work to replace the sidewalk in front of the school.