Charter review committee chooses OPERS minimum as preferred model for council pay

The Canal Winchester Charter Review Committee on March 5 agreed to move forward with language that would tie council pay to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) minimum earnable salary rather than a percentage-of-median-household-income formula.

Committee members said the OPERS model resolves a legal concern from the Ohio Ethics Commission about midterm pay increases and ensures council members receive full retirement service credit. Amanda (staff member) presented two salary models and a regional comparison from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) salary survey; legal counsel Chuck Shamp explained the ethics risk of a midterm raise without a formula.

"The Ohio Ethics Commission has ruled multiple times that you can't vote on your own pay raise midterm," Shamp said, noting that indexing salaries to an outside formula is a common workaround. Amanda presented two main options: 1) set salaries to OPERS' minimum earnable amount so members receive full OPERS service credit, or 2) tie compensation to a share (15 percent) of the city median household income, a model used by Hilliard.

Committee members acknowledged the initial increase under the OPERS model would be substantial compared with pay last changed in 2015, but several said they preferred a model that keeps pay modest while restoring retirement credit. One member summarized: "Going off the OPERS minimum kind of puts them ... at a low minimum level ... but we're also kind of taking that weirdness away from them and making sure that they get the benefits that they've earned." (Committee member)

During an on-the-record show-of-hands, committee members indicated support for advancing the OPERS-minimum approach. After a brief count the group chair said, "Okay. So it looks like we're moving forward with the OPERS minimum." The committee asked staff to prepare charter language reflecting that model and to correct minor labeling errors in the draft tables before the next meeting.

Background: Under the OPERS model, the minimum earnable salary is set by the retirement system and is published through 2029; staff noted those figures allow predictable indexing through that year. The alternative discussed — 15 percent of median household income — used a 2023 median of $66,000 from the regional tax agency and would have produced a higher, more variable salary for council members.

The committee did not fix specific percentage add-ons for president or vice president beyond noting current differentials (vice president higher than rank-and-file by 5 percent; president by 10 percent) could be retained or adjusted when the final charter language is drafted.

Next steps: Staff will prepare redline charter language tying council compensation to the OPERS minimum earnable salary (with clear effective dates) for review at the next meeting. No change to the mayor's salary was finalized at this time; members asked staff to return with options for mayoral pay indexing separately.