{"id":167832,"date":"2023-07-11T03:50:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T08:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=167832"},"modified":"2023-07-12T03:45:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T08:45:46","slug":"raise-proposals-amended-final-decision-coming-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/07\/11\/raise-proposals-amended-final-decision-coming-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise proposals amended, vote coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t unanimous but Van Wert City Council took a step toward raising the salaries of certain elected officials, including salaries for those who are sitting on council next January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raises were discussed at city council\u2019s final meeting of June<\/a> and Monday night, council members approved amendments to a pair of ordinances, then heard the first reading of each piece of legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one changed a proposed one percent annual raise for the mayor to three percent annually for four years, beginning in 2024. The current mayoral salary is $54,180. If approved, it would increase to $55,805 in 2024, $57,379 in 2025, $59,103 in 2026 and $60,876 in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming gives an update on the city’s water meter replacement project. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the amendment and first reading, City Auditor Martha Balyeat questioned why a raise of one percent was proposed for the mayor\u2019s post, compared to three percent raises for the jobs of auditor and law director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mayor was already 10 percent behind the other elected officials at the end of this term,\u201d Balyeat stated. \u201cYou\u2019re widening the gap\u2026he\u2019s going to be almost 19 percent behind the auditor and law director. Unless you\u2019re talking about cutting that to part-time, I\u2019m not sure that one percent is keeping you competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ordinance will have its second reading at council\u2019s next meeting. If ultimately approved, auditor salaries would be $65,822 in 2024, $67,797 in 2025, $69,831 in 2026 and $71,926 in 2027. Law director salaries would be $72,403 in 2024, $74,575 in 2025, $76,812 in 2026 and $79,116 in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After some discussion, council members approved an amendment to raise annual council salaries from $4,900 to $6,100 annually, and $5,500 to $6,700 annually for the council president. The previous proposal called for council salaries to increase to $5,390 and $6,050 for the council president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Ward Councilman Jeff Agler spoke in favor of increased raises and said council salaries have only increased by $1,200 over a 17-year span. The amendment passed 4-2, with Agler, Bill Marshall, Jeff Kallas and Julie Moore voting yes, and David Stinnett and Judy Bowers voting no. Fourth Ward Councilman Andrew Davis was absent from the meeting. The vote was the same on the first reading. The legislation will have its second reading later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

If approved, all raises will go into effect January 1. By law, council members are prohibited from giving themselves raises during a current term. All council seats, along with mayor, law director and city auditor are up for election in November. Balyeat plans to retire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his report to council, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming said 624 new water meters have been installed so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going well, maybe not quite as fast as we anticipated but we\u2019re on a learning curve,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t received any calls or complaints so far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleming also said brush pickup is underway and will continue through this week and he said the TekniPlex building project continues at Vision Industrial Park with the steel frame going up. Once complete next spring, the 200,000 square foot facility will produce egg cartons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business, council members approved three \u201cthen and now\u201d invoices: $3,218.35 to SiteOne for field mix for the parks; $4,363.24 to AllMax for software for the wastewater plant, and $3,049 to Software Solutions for cloud storage service for the tax office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council also approved an ordinance approving the formation of the union cemetery district for Woodland Cemetery, and heard the second reading of an ordiance to establish a new fund for Van Wert\u2019s Veterans Court, also known as CAMO Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ordinance allowing property at 10480 Greenville Road, owned by Daniel Dasher, to de-annex or detach from the city received its first reading. Dasher currently doesn\u2019t receive city water or sewer service, but a rough estimate to provide those services is expected before the legislation has its second reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 24, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor It wasn\u2019t unanimous but Van Wert City Council took a step toward raising the salaries of certain elected officials, including salaries for those who are sitting on council next January. Raises were discussed at city council\u2019s final meeting of June and Monday night, council members approved amendments to a pair of ordinances, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 00:49:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167832"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167889,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167832\/revisions\/167889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}