Bay City compensation commission declines to raise mayor and commissioner pay

The Bay City Compensation Commission voted to recommend no increase to the salaries of the mayor and city commissioners at its recent meeting, ending discussion after a motion from Commissioner Marie Curzer.

Commissioner Marie Curzer moved, “I am making a motion that we do not raise the compensation of the commissioners or the mayors.” The motion carried; the transcript records the motion’s passage but does not provide a roll-call vote or a named seconder.

The commission discussed a staff memo comparing Bay City with 20 similarly sized jurisdictions. Staff reported peer comparisons for mayor and commissioner pay, the commission’s per-capita cost ranking among peers, and meeting-frequency data. Members questioned whether fewer committee and pre-meeting sessions (previously called “finance and policy” meetings) and changes in meeting practices meant commissioners were doing less of the preparatory work that had previously factored into compensation decisions.

The commission’s discussion covered two procedural points that frame the recommendation: (1) Bay City’s charter ties part of elected officials’ pay to attendance, with the commission staff noting the charter assumes 24 meetings per year and that attendance is a factor for part of the salary; and (2) the charter requires a compensation review every 20 years but allows the commission to propose amendments at other times. Commissioners also noted past Commission recommendations that were rejected by the elected body in 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Several commissioners said they were not ready to recommend an increase while the commission and elected body continue to experience turnover and changes in meeting practices. Commissioner Vanessa Miller, a newer member, said she was “very new to all of this” and that she would prefer to let the commission and elected officials “get settled” before pursuing raises. Other members expressed concern about meeting frequency and the elimination of standing pre-meetings and some committees, including an audit committee that one member said had not met in some time.

Staff agreed to prepare a written resolution of the commission’s recommendation for signatures. The commission called for public input; no members of the public spoke. The meeting adjourned after the motion carried.

Details recorded in the meeting transcript show the commission reviewed peer-city data (a 20-city sample by population), meeting counts by year (27 meetings in 2023, 25 in 2024, 28 to date in 2025), and the charter’s procedural requirements for compensation reviews. The transcript does not include a formal vote tally or identify a seconder for the motion to recommend no raise.