North Pole council backs 5-2 plan to cut next mayor's pay to $2,000

The North Pole City Council voted 5-2 Monday night to cut the next mayor's pay to $2,000 a month with no benefits, down from a job Mayor Pro Tem Brandt described as paying about $80,000 a year plus retirement, health insurance, vacation and comp time.

The change is not final. The council then voted 4-3 to postpone the underlying employee pay ordinance, which also carries a 3 percent cost-of-living raise for city workers, to Oct. 5, after members questioned whether the proposed pay matrix would produce an exact 3 percent raise and asked for a work session. The council advanced that raise earlier this month.

Brandt, who made the motion, said the job is part-time in practice: 4.2 square miles, 2,500 residents, 51 employees, with police, fire, public works and utilities largely run by their department heads. He put the work at two hours a day, five days a week, about $50 an hour. "It doesn't make sense to pay $140,000, $150,000 a year to run a 2,500-resident city," Brandt said.

City code excludes elected officials hired after July 1, 2006 from the state public employees' retirement system if they earn less than $2,001 a month, leaving the $2,000 post just under the line.

Councilman Schuster said the council had two options: "You could attract qualified, or, you know, qualified mayor candidates by paying $140,000 a year, $150,000 a year, or you do it the opposite way where you move to a more part-time." Councilman Claus said he agreed with Brandt's reasoning.

Skips and Councilwoman Rolfe voted no. "If I was going to be all in on something, I'd want to be compensated for being all in on something, not just part-time," Skips said. Mayor Church asked who covers the work "when the director of city services, who you delegated all this work to, gives a 2-week notice and, and leaves the city?" Brandt said the city hires a new one.

The change does not touch the current mayor's pay, Brandt said. Follow-up ordinances would remove the retirement, health insurance, vacation and comp time. Council members earn $400 a month. Under the charter, any compensation change waits until the council meeting after the Oct. 6 city election. Alaska cities vary widely in mayoral pay, from stipends to full salaries, depending on government structure and duties.