Boise elected officials to consider forgoing raises amid smaller budget, COVID concerns
The members of the Boise City Council on Tuesday started the process to forgo 3% raises scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, a move that is expected to be complete before the end of the year.
Council members’ salaries are due to rise from $26,430 to $27,223 and the mayor’s salary from $145,099 to $149,452 under a city ordinance enacted before 2018 that scheduled annual raises through 2021. The vote on Tuesday begins the process to cancel that.
“We thought it would all be appropriate for us to not take raises, just because of the budget implications of COVID and all the unknowns with our revenue,” Council Member Holli Woodings said by phone Tuesday morning before the ordinance’s first vote.
Woodings said a constituent asked her if the mayor and council still planned to take raises after shrinking the budget for fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. 1. She brought that to Council President Elaine Clegg, and together, they had a series of conversations with other council members and the mayor about it.
“Given the sacrifices our residents have made, the city’s current financial constraints, and the fact that we haven’t yet settled on compensation for our employees in the next fiscal year, it seems best that we not move ahead with a raise planned years ago,” McLean said in an emailed statement.
An ordinance to forgo the raises received the first of three required readings Tuesday night before becoming law. It passed without discussion. The second and third readings are expected in upcoming meetings, with enactment upon the third reading.
Future city councils will likely still have raises built in to city code, Woodings said. The council would enact a new ordinance, likely early next year to avoid running up against the three council elections that will take place in November 2021. That new ordinance would most likely begin in 2022.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 5:22 PM.
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