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Council begins discussion on raising mayor and council stipends, cites 13‑year gap
Summary
Council members reviewed stipend data and inflation indexes and discussed raising annual mayoral pay to about $9,000 and council pay to about $7,000, or indexing future adjustments to a municipal cost index; no vote was taken and staff will return with ordinance language if council wishes to pursue a change.
Lake Elmo council members opened a discussion about updating mayor and council stipends, noting there has been no increase since the 2013 effective date of the last adjustment.
Staff presented comparator city medians and inflation calculations. One council member noted cumulative inflation since 2013 would make the mayor’s stipend roughly $8,650 and council members’ stipends roughly $6,700 if adjusted strictly by CPI, while an alternate municipal cost index produced somewhat higher figures. After discussion, several members expressed support for round figures of about $9,000 for the mayor and $7,000 for council members, or for indexing future adjustments to an established government cost index to avoid long gaps between increases.
No ordinance or motion was adopted; council members asked staff to research indexing options and prepare ordinance language and comparator data for a future meeting. "It's been 13 years," a member said in explaining why the issue was raised; another council member summarized the conversation by saying, "Nine and seven," referring to the proposed rounded stipend figures.
What's next: staff will present ordinance language and indexing options at a later meeting if the council wishes to proceed.
