Commission amends pay ordinance to raise mayor, commissioner salaries; amendment passes 5-2

The Dothan City Commission on Tuesday amended Ordinance 2025-34, which proposes adjustments to the mayor's and associate commissioners' compensation, setting the mayor's pay at $75,474 and each commissioner's pay at $37,737 and providing that future increases will follow the same cost-of-living adjustments given to city employees.

The change was proposed during debate about whether the city's elected officials' pay should be more comparable to Houston County. Commissioner Dorsey moved the amendment, citing county figures discussed in the meeting; the city clerk read Houston County's rates into the record as $92,469 for the county chairman and $39,771 for each county commissioner. The amendment passed by voice vote with a recorded count of five in favor and two opposed.

Why it matters: The ordinance (No. 2025-34) amends Chapter 2, Article 2, Section 2-41 of the City of Dothan Code of Ordinances and supersedes a prior resolution cited in the meeting record. Commissioners debated both the length of time since the last change (noted in the meeting as 1989) and the propriety of increasing compensation for incumbents versus future officeholders. Several commissioners said they were uncomfortable discussing pay increases for themselves but also acknowledged the long interval since the last adjustment.

Discussion and procedural details: City staff explained two approaches that had been considered. Under the ordinance text discussed earlier in the meeting, the clerk said, the original version would have increased the mayor's pay by 3% from the existing salary and then applied whatever annual cost-of-living adjustments the city gives employees going forward. The clerk read the alternate figures introduced during debate (mayor $75,474; commissioners $37,737) and the clerk and finance staff provided background calculations to the commission. When asked to calculate what cumulative cost-of-living adjustments since 1989 would have produced, staff told the commission that applying those COLAs would equate to roughly $75,000 for the mayor and $37,000 for each commissioner.

Votes and next steps: The amendment to set the specific dollar amounts and to tie future increases to the city employee COLA passed 5-2. The transcript records the successful amendment vote but does not record a subsequent roll-call or voice vote explicitly adopting the ordinance as amended; the final disposition of Ordinance 2025-34 as amended is not specified in the transcript provided.

Context and background: Commissioners noted the need to balance public perception, the part-time nature of the offices, and the desire to make the positions reasonably comparable with similar local offices. The commission also discussed the legal requirement that salary changes be set with sufficient lead time to become effective after the next term (staff noted a six-month timing requirement for effectiveness). The commission did not adopt a different schedule for implementation in the transcript excerpt.

Ending: The commission moved on to other business after the compensation discussion. The transcript shows the amendment outcome and staff guidance; any final ordinance adoption vote or the exact effective date beyond the general October 2025 timing mentioned in the ordinance text is not recorded in the provided transcript.