Williamsport mayor, council may get pay hikes

January 07, 1997

By FRANCA LEWIS

Staff Writer

WILLIAMSPORT - A raise in pay may be in store for the Williamsport mayor and council.

Mayor John Slayman recommended the salary increases, saying it had been 13 years since the town's part-time leaders had been granted raises.

Slayman recommended increasing the mayor's salary to $3,000 a year from $1,800; the assistant mayor's salary to $2,200 a year from $1,200; and each of the five council member's salaries to $1,700 a year from $1,000.

The mayor's recommendation, which came at a council workshop session, is expected to get a vote at next week's regular Town Council meeting.

Two council members, however, said they didn't agree with the pay raise proposal, and would vote against it.

"It's not necessary for what we do," said Councilman Walter Tracy Jr. "Lord knows we deserve it, but we do this work for our constituents, and nobody is in it for the money."

Councilman Earle Pereschuk Sr. said he would vote against the raise "because public officials are in office to serve the public, not to make money."

Pereschuk said he believes the mayor deserves the raise. He said the mayor's job requires more work now that Williamsport no longer employs a town administrator. That job has been vacant for a year.

The mayor hopes the entire council agrees to the plan. "I prefer the council be in unison about this," he said. "I don't want any friction over this."

Slayman said pay raises are long overdue and needed to attract candidates to public office.

He said the last pay raise approved for the mayor and council came in 1984.

The town charter states that any pay raise must be approved before an election and does not take effect until the following year. Williamsport will elect a mayor, an assistant mayor and two council members in March.

|

|

|