Gahanna council opens review of elected-official pay; council asks finance director for fiscal impact

Councilmember Bowers opened a broad discussion on Feb. 24 about compensation for elected officials, presenting a memo with historical context, regional comparables and legal constraints under the city charter and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS).

Bowers said the charter vests salary adjustments with council and that, by charter language, changes take effect at the start of the subsequent term. She summarized the recent history: council salary increases were last meaningfully adjusted in 1999 (monthly council pay moved from $600 to $800), the council president received a $100 monthly supplement by ordinance in 2006, and there have been no general adjustments to council pay for 26 years. The city attorney’s salary was last set by ordinance in 2019 and the memo lists the current city attorney salary as $80,765. The mayor’s salary was last amended in 2011 with an effective date of Jan. 2, 2012, the memo states.

Bowers cited OPERS health-care eligibility rules that require a minimum monthly earnable salary of $1,000 for credit toward OPERS health benefits and said that consideration of salary changes could affect future officials’ eligibility for retiree health coverage. She also summarized comparative data from the Ohio Municipal League and other regional salary surveys and asked for additional analysis from the administration on the budgetary impact of any changes, including benefits and employer OPERS contributions.

Council debate was substantive and split. Several members thanked Bowers for the research and asked staff for a fiscal-impact analysis. Councilmember Renner said he could not support changes at this time, citing economic pressures on residents and priorities for city services. Mayor (unnamed in the committee transcript) said she strongly opposed increasing the mayor’s salary and noted she had run for office knowing the salary and that public service is a voluntary civic duty. Other councilmembers asked for the proposed increases to be broken out by office — mayor, city attorney and council — and for Director Burry to provide a dollar-and-benefits estimate.

Council agreed to return the three salary items to committee in two weeks for further discussion and instructed Director Burry to prepare the fiscal impact of proposed salary adjustments so members could consider cost and budget trade-offs before any ordinance is drafted. No ordinance or vote occurred at this meeting.