Anchorage Assembly: Salaries and Emoluments Commission Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call the meeting of the September 3rd Salary and Emoluments Commission to order. If you will please take the roll.

Member Rieger? Here.

It's my understanding that Chair Hayes is excused.

Member Norworthy?

Here. It's my understanding that Member Jessin is excused. Vice Chair Redmond? Here. Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

I will approve the agenda. I'll second. OK, it's been moved.

Approval of agenda— of the agenda has been moved and seconded. Is there any objection?

Hearing none, the agenda as presented is approved. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of July 30th. I will move to approve. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the July 30th meeting.

Any objection or any corrections?

Seeing none, any objection? None. The minutes of the July 30th meeting are approved. Disclosures. Did we talk to anybody we weren't supposed to?

I have no disclosures.

No, no disclosures. Okay, unfinished business. We're here to discuss compensation of the mayor, and we have a resolution before us to discuss. Who would like to start the discussion?

Hi, this is Karen. Looking at the resolution that the clerk's office typed up for us, first of all, thank you very much. I would just like to make one comment on Section 1, the salary. The mayor shall receive a salary in the amount of $183,926, and just to a system-wise process. Um, like to have nice round numbers that fit in so there's no problem with the SAP system and, and the salaries.

So I would propose that we make an amendment to either 183.19.20, um, or 183.40.

That will round out better to an hourly rate for the SAP system.

There's Steve. Um, yeah, I don't think there's a motion on the floor, but just into this discussion generally, um, I wonder actually if the $26 was a typo from last time. I didn't really listen to the tape, but I'm pretty sure that the last time Karen multiplied it out and had a number, and I wonder if we just wrote The wrong one went down. Yeah, this is Karen looking at my notes. I think it is just a typo because I had the 20 cents.

So let's actually, we probably should have a motion on the floor to approve submitting the resolution, and then—.

Madam Chair, I'm happy to move it, although I do have a few Edits, but I'll move to approve together. Open for discussion. And I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded, and now we'll continue our discussion. Um, I, I agree with— we— the number should be 183,019.20.

And, and go ahead, Steve, you had some questions.

Um, some of these are nitpicks. There's maybe one that's more substantive. Um, the, um, the— I just saw, I just got the resolution, um, you know, this week, but there's on the third whereas there is a, um, it says this resolution does not change the salaries, benefits, or allowances. This I think was inadvertently taken from a prior resolution. I'm guessing that that was when we were kind of cleaning up format, but this resolution actually does change the salary.

So I think the words— after this resolution, the words "does not change the salaries, benefits, or allowances, it establishes a new format," removing references to past resolutions and explicitly all those words probably should be deleted, and it might— it also might not even be necessary to have that third whereas at all, that paragraph.

Karen, do you have any— Karen? No, I, I would agree unless the whereas is simply, um, states if it's needed, um, that it's changing the salary, but I agree the rest of that should not be in there. Yeah, it does change the salary, so with everything else, um, it doesn't change the benefits or anything because we already did that previously. Yeah, so that should be come out. And then did you have—.

Yeah, I had more. Okay, this on the be it resolved, uh, the opening language on be it resolved, it refers to the compensation for the Anchorage mayor elected or reelected at the— and then after that, the words May 14th, 2024 special election.

It should be whatever the date is in 2027. The blank 2027 election includes—. Yeah, April 6th, 2027. Is that what it is? April 6th?

Yes. That was one of— that was mine also. I thought, I don't think that's right.

Those two, Madam Chair, I think are just cleanup.

Maybe I'll put out there— this probably is not necessary, but on Section 6, fringe benefits, maintenance and operation, you know, there's the second one, capital letter B.

The last phrase is "and any federal, state, or local taxes," and it— the grammar just doesn't seem right. I mean, seems like it should be "and subject to any applicable federal, state, or local taxes," but since I'm not a legal draftsman, I don't know if that's good as it stands or not, but it just read a little funny that it's in accordance with the policy and procedure 76.0-03 and any federal, state, or local taxes. So I don't think I'll suggest changing it, but I just wanted to flag it if someone else feels uncomfortable with it. Then, since I still have the floor— thank you, Manager— one of the things that I I did request at the last meeting was that we be presented with what the actual COLAs were for the years subsequent to the last time that the mayor's salary was adjusted. The $183,000 figure came from something that was just downloaded off the internet, CPI Tables 2019 to Present Urban Alaska.

I think it was put out probably by Department of Labor, but I don't see a heading on it. But I just— it's probably right and it's probably close, but I thought what we were going to do was to cross-check that against what the personnel department had actually used. Through the chair, I did reach out to HR and they said they didn't have it available. So I had reached out to finance and they were gonna get it to me, but the person who was is out. So, um, Molly's gonna see if she can find anything real quick, but I did try to coordinate.

Okay, thank you. It's a little disturbing that HR doesn't have that because that's what is used in contract negotiations.

That's interesting. Sorry, can you clarify the dates that you wanted that information for? From 2019 to present. Well, that, that was the table that we were working off. Whenever the mayor's salary was last adjusted, what I would, what I would have been requesting was that actual election year because the resolution was passed prior to that election year, and then all the subsequent years.

Ah, here it is.

In 2026, we had the salary of the mayor at $145,392, and that's when we— I believe that's when we added the parking benefits and the— yeah, so we haven't changed the salary in— that is the current salary. Yeah, this is 2026. So when was the last time we— when was the last time we changed it? I believe it was in 2020, 2019. Oh, here's 2020.

Here's 2019. Um, Elected officials assembly.

Let's see, assembly 2020.

It was a 20— looks like, uh, Effective July 1st, 2021 was what we created the current amount.

Madam Chair, so what was the date of that resolution? The date of that resolution is September 9th, 2020. Okay, so, so we in 2020, we did not know the CPI for 2020, so the most recent data we would have had was 2019. So really, the— we either estimated what 2020 would be, right, or we just took it through 2019. And I mean, we had that discussion last time, it wasn't clear which one we knew, but I think To answer the question from staff, it seems it would be handy to know the CPIs that personnel used for 2020 through present, year by year.

Well, and I would say to tack on to that, Steve, is if we were doing that in 2019, we probably didn't have 2019 either. We were going off of 2018. I thought we said that the date of the resolution was in 2020. Was it? Oh yes, it was.

Okay, excuse me. The resolution was in September 20th. Okay, so what is the— is there any What is your wish today? Can we make some of the changes? I would say on the, the third whereas that Steve pointed out, I, I would say just because it's this resolution, um, changes the salary, right?

Well, and then I don't think we need that fourth one, that fourth whereas.

Yeah, I agree. Right.

Yeah, that, that one we don't need.

Whereas, through the chair, so the amendment, do you want to just remove the third whereas clause or just change it? The, the third whereas clause, I think it has to say that this resolution changes the salary.

And then delete the fourth one. And then I also have the update for the election date. Yeah, we have to— okay, so the third whereas would read, this resolution establishes—.

No, I think that's fine. Say changes. Yeah, this resolution changes the salary Do we need to put what it's from?

No, no.

So, and do— but we don't need the new format, do we? We don't. This can be super short. Whereas this resolution changes the salary, semicolon. And then it'll go into be it resolved.

Okay, but now that we're totally picking this apart, and you go up and read the first one, whereas the commission believes the resolution format establishing compensation including salaries, benefits, and allowances, if any, of elected officials should be clear and comprehensive and standardized across elected officials. Elected office. I don't think we need that one either. No, it's— no, even though it's true, it's not— it's not needed. It's—.

It wasn't as part of this resolution. This—. That was— that was already been done in a previous—. Right.

And I don't think we need the second one either, right? Whereas the commission directed the staff to work with the human resource department and others needed to establish a baseline of all all salaries, benefits, and allowances, if any, previously granted by the commission to elected officials.

I don't know. For future commissions, would that be helpful to have that in there? Well, it was in the previous one when we adopted all this. Right. Looking back at the, um, resolution we did when we changed the mayor's salary, it starts off with "be it resolved," and maybe we don't need any of those whereases.

Yeah, so that's—. Madam Chair, that works for me. Yeah, so it should—. Through the chair, I had pulled what Matt had previously drafted that was approved, but I'm happy to change it so I can get rid of those whereas clauses. Sure.

But that was the format that he had written that was approved, so that's what we were using. But I am happy to just start with be it resolved. Be it resolved, salary shall be—. Because yeah, it just goes right into the rest of it, I think. And I went over this yesterday and looked to.

I think the rest of it looks pretty clear except for that in, in Section 6, um, Part B, and with the— where it says, and any federal, state, or local taxes. I think it'd be— with Steve's language, I think it'd be in subject to, because it is taxed. There's a lot of IRS taxes on that. So it'd be— wait a minute, the mayor is eligible to take available funds with policy and procedures and subject to any— yeah, do we have that? Do we have that applicable?

Any applicable federal, state, or local taxes subject to any applicable? Yes.

And I would— I'm sure you'll do this anyway, but I'd suggest that you just run that by your legal drafter to make sure we aren't inadvertently triggering something that we didn't intend to. Yeah, I know what our intent is, is just to say that this isn't intended to bypass anything that's standard, but I don't know if that's the best way to draft that.

Now I'm gonna have to— I should know this, but do we need a motion to accept these changes? Well, we don't. We need to see it after it's—. I think we do need a motion for the changes. Okay, the amendments, the amendments to the— that we've made to the resolution.

So Can I make— I can't make a motion. I'll make a motion to amend the draft Resolution 20-6 to remove the 4 wheres, change the be it resolved language to the April 2027 election, and that under the mayor's salary it is adjusted to $183,019.20, and under Section 6, fringe benefits, B, last sentence at the end, and subject to any applicable federal, state, or local taxes.

Kind of a clarifying question: are we thinking that we won't actually act on this resolution today?

I don't. If that's the case, I might have to revise my original motion, um, with the consent of the second, to say that we should circulate a draft with these changes. It would be a different motion than saying a motion to actually approve, which is what my first motion was. Because otherwise we'd have a motion hanging out there and then we'd adjourn the meeting and it would hang out to the next meeting. Can we not—.

Through the chair, you can postpone the item and then that motion will still be on the table at the next meeting, or you can withdraw it and postpone. But because we're in the middle of the amendment, we have to handle that first. Okay, so you'll want to vote on the amendment first and then we'll go to the main motion. Which is the resolution as approved or as amended, and then you can choose to postpone or withdraw. Okay, I have a question on timing, uh, to make sure— can we do this between now and—.

If he approves the amendment, then we talk about that piece, right? Or not? So we should, we should vote, we, we should vote on the amendments at this point. The amended motion, I mean the amended resolution, the amendments to the resolution. So is there— I'm calling for the vote on the—.

I think it has to be seconded. Yes. Okay, somebody needs to make the motion. I thought you did make the motion. I did.

Okay, so I'll second Karen's edits. Amendments. Yeah.

Is there any objection to the amendments that have been made by, uh, to the, to the draft resolution? Hearing none, the amendments pass, carry, and will be incorporated.

So, Madam Chair, back to the main motion then.

I don't know why, but I feel more comfortable withdrawing it for now so that what's being presented to us is a draft that we will need a— we will need a new main motion to act on at the next meeting.

I, I'd like— I would like to see it a clean, a clean copy before I can— to make sure that we've got everything and that we didn't inadvertently do something we weren't supposed to or we didn't want to do.

Is that—. That's what you're thinking also? That's, that's part of my thinking, yes. I'd like to see it. I'd like to— I'd just like to have it come to our next meeting as this one came to us in this meeting, as a draft that we consider.

We move to approve or not, and then we edit it or not, and then we act on it. I mean, I certainly hear you that you could postpone action on a motion, but there's only 3 of us here. It'll be a different quorum next time, just a different number of members. Just feels better to me to just— if we're going to not act on— take final action today anyway, let's just clear the table and have that resolution presented to us as the new draft at the next meeting.

Karen, so we— Steve and I go off in October, and I am gone during part of September. So I'm through the chair. There is a 120-day period even if you're off a board or commission. You still can agree to serve for 120 days or until the seat is filled. So that would be up to you both, but that is in the code.

Have they attempted to fill it yet? Not yet. All the terms and seats are incorrect, so we're working with the mayor's office to try to correct them. Okay, okay, okay. So that, that makes it clear then.

Then we do have— we can do this. And, uh, okay, so Do I need a— do we need a motion? Well, through the chair, I can also print clean copies today for you to review if you would like to take a recess and do that. Oh, I would, I would like to do that. Okay, please.

Thank you. We will be standing recess for 10 minutes, 10 minutes, or therefore Turn off your mic.

Through the chair, no one's on the phone, and by charter and code, you don't technically have to have a public hearing, but yes, this is an open setting for if anyone wanted to provide feedback.

Because their CPI numbers are probably more personal than our CPI numbers. So that would be the reason to hold it, is just to cross-check that. Are we back on record? Oh, okay. Um, so yeah, we took— I took whatever the CPI you and I did off I googled it, but we also looked at what all of the bargaining units within the municipality did and all the increases within the last few years that they had made to police, fire, IBEW, engineers, plumbers, etc.

And so looking at those, you know, something I'm I considered and looked at as well, to look at, you know, where we are today. We got this back from 2023 to present. When you look at those increases, and some of them are a little bit low, some of them are, are quite substantial. So I, I thought that we, uh, but the figure we came up with is considering those, right?

Oh, well, in my head I kind of looked at these and considered that, but what we, what we use is we totaled up the CPIUs that we got off of— I forget what website, um, right from the Department of Labor, which website, um, where we looked at the 1.2, um, increase in 2020, 2021 was 4.7, 2022 6.5, '23 was 4. 1.1, 24 Was 2.9, and 25 was 2.7. So that's what we utilized, um, was that to come up with the $182,000, $183,000, some change. Yeah, $183,000. So what is the wish of the body at this point?

I guess rather than answer the chair's question, I pose a question. To Karen.

When you looked at the actual increases that went for in this whole stack of backup data, it did appear to you that the CPIs that were— the CPI numbers that you just read off we're in the right ballpark. So we'd just be tidying up a number for the sake of tidying it up rather than that it would make a material difference. In some ways, yeah. When you look at, if you look at 2025, it looks like within the city predominantly folks got a 1.5 with the exception of APD got 3.3 and 3.5. And in 2025, the CPIU was 2.9.

1.7, So they were below. In '24, 2.9, but you also have to realize you're kind of looking back at a year back on these increases and not knowing exactly when the contracts were negotiated, but just looking at year to year.

When looking at '24, it's 2.9, and you've got everything from a 1.4 to 7.8, 2.5. 3.3 And so forth. So you're not going to see an exact match because in negotiations you're trying to keep below the CPI-U when you can. Sometimes we do go above it in negotiations.

I think, I think that we could work with it, go with this, because it, uh, we're not going to make much in any significant change in this amount at all other than what we've done. And since it doesn't go into effect until the next, after the next election, and they need, they do, uh, yeah, it doesn't affect the current. Yes, and we won't know what the CPIU in 2026 is. Right, so we're always going to be just a little bit behind.

Go ahead. Okay, okay, okay, um, give me a second to do one last look. Hang on.

Just as a side note too, looking at the school district's superintendent, the salary is $250,000. UAA chancellor is $314,648.

So it's still significantly below other government. I just keep thinking I have to pay this. I mean, I'm, as a taxpayer, I have to pay this. However, this is a significant job. I mean, we expect a lot.

I mean, this is a 24-hour-a-day job. It's not just 8 to 5, 5 days a week. So, it's 24, it's a, and it is significant.

Steve's calculating again. It's okay, I spent a lot of time with my calculator.

Can't be right.

What was the prior salary? Um, it was $145,392.

And it's been, it's been a number of years. I'm comfortable that it's going to be in the ballpark. Okay, so I, so I need to, I need to I need a motion to approve the resolution. Through the chair, that's already on the floor. It is still on the floor.

It's on the floor with the amendments that we made.

Oh yes, it's on the floor like this. I move to second.

Do we have— we had a second, I think.

Okay. I'm going to call for a vote.

Mr. Rager? I'll vote yes. Miss Norris-Worthy? Yes. And I vote yes.

So the motion— I hear no, and there's no objection, so the motion passes. At this time, I just want to clarify something just for the record of my thinking. On Section 7, it says all past resolutions are null and void.

I'm rereading that and thinking that's kind of a sweeping statement.

Just to make sure it doesn't inadvertently repeal something that we'd already passed in the past. I think that is why we did the format where we had everything in here that we worked with Matt on. So it was like we had a place for the, the health, the life, the disability, and that. So It's all contained in one now, right? Through the chair, that's correct.

The previous resolution for this year to reformat is already approved with that language, so it is just to include all of the health benefits and all of that additive stuff. So we're good there. So as long as that's the intent and understanding. Well, that's the intent. That's the intent.

I hate to be a nitpicker, but I—. That's why we have you here.

I would, I'd feel better if that read all past resolutions with respect to the compensation of the Anchorage Mayor are null and void, just to make sure that we aren't inadvertently repealing past resolutions that affect the school board or the assembly or anything else. Can we, um, but so this is limited to the mayor.

Uh, you want to move to amend something previously adopted and then you'll have to go back.

Yeah, I see. If I think under here it's no salary benefits or lunch shall be made available to the the mayor unless explicitly granted it by this resolution. Because there we spent a lot of time on, right, all these to make sure they were all in one document. So if they're not in this document, yeah, they are null and void, right? Okay, well, I'll just— and then I'll just say, if staff assures me that this does not affect all past resolutions that determined the compensation of the assembly or the school board, I'd feel a lot better.

This is only— this only applies to the mayor.

This does not—. Yeah, this is, this is very specific. We don't, because we did not— we don't give a, a car to the school, the Sorry. Yeah, no, no, this only applies to the mayor.

Staff agree with that? This will not affect— this will not affect all past resolutions as that regard other elected officials? Through the chair, I would agree with that. The resolution is pretty explicit that it's directed at the mayor's salary and the mayor's benefits. I can always have our attorneys look at it later and we can fix it later, but I would agree that it is just for the mayor.

Okay, okay, good enough. Are there any other comments regarding the resolution we just passed?

Karen, are you adding up things again? No, no, no, no, I was just kind of looking and making sure. I'm good. I think, I think we are.

Um, okay, so is there any, uh, any new business to come before us at this time?

Member comments?

Public participation.

Okay, should we set a date for another meeting when hopefully— I mean, I'd like to, I'd like to have a meeting hopefully with everybody just to be before all of you disappear.

Do we have any? Because I don't think we have anything left that we wanted to discuss because we've adjusted school board. Yeah, everything's covered. This mayor, I think so. We shouldn't have to have another meeting until next year.

Through the chair, that's correct. I can't believe we did this. Okay.

I have no— I have no comments other than the fact that Mr. Eger, I know that you are not going to continue, and I have appreciated and enjoyed having the opportunity to work with you all these years.

So I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Okay, we're adjourned.