Wellsville council approves 5% pay raises for full‑time city employees; justice of the peace to receive 8% under state guidance

The Wellsville City Council adopted a resolution on June 18 that increases pay for full‑time city employees by 5% for the 2025–26 budget year and separately approved pay adjustments for statutory and elected officers.

Scott (staff member) explained the 5% package is structured as 2% cost-of-living plus 3% merit. “We settled on a 5% increase, for all of our full time employees,” Scott said while reviewing the proposal. Public commenters urged the council to keep city wages competitive; Tracy Boudreau and Diane Roundy both said retaining long‑term employees and providing livable wages were priorities.

On statutory officers and elected officials, council action left the mayor and council pay unchanged; the justice of the peace received an 8% increase because state direction sets his pay range and requires the city to meet that minimum. Scott said the justice of the peace “has some direction from the state level on, it's dictated by the state on his range of, pay.”

Council approved the employee-pay resolution; the transcript records one abstention during the vote on the employees’ raises (the abstaining member was not named on the public record). The code amendment setting salaries and benefits for statutory and elected officers was also approved during the meeting.

Ending: The increases for employees and for statutory officers will be reflected in the 2025–26 operating budget adopted by the council; staff said payroll impacts were incorporated into the city’s budget documents.