Committee recommends $7,500 annual pay for councilors, $15,000 for mayor; vehicle allowance removed

A city-council committee on Feb. 3 voted to send to the full council a proposed compensation package that would pay Homewood council members $7,500 annually and the mayor (council president) $15,000 annually for the 20252029 term.

Councilor Anderson introduced benchmarking numbers for neighboring municipalities, saying Mountain Brook pays no salary, Hoover pays about $7,500 and Alabaster and Trussville pay in the $12,000to$13,000 range. Anderson said the proposed cut for the mayor from the current level reflected that a full-time city manager/executive will handle day-to-day operations in the new government structure.

Committee members discussed several policy points: making the change effective for the next term (not retroactive), removing the mayorvehicle allowance and allowing mileage and actual expenses to be reimbursed under existing rules. Committee members also discussed the public-access and equity rationale: some candidates cannot serve if public office requires uncompensated time away from paid work.

A motion to forward the compensation proposal to the full council passed on a committee voice vote with members saying "aye." Committee staff said the ordinance, if approved by council, would be effective for the next term and that individual councilors could decline payment or direct their stipend to a charity if they wished.

The committee also asked staff to provide final ordinance language, inflation-adjustment options and comparable salaries from other municipalities before the full-council vote.