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WARREN -- It's been three years since Warren City Council approved pay and benefits raises for itself and pay raises for nine top city officials, such as Mayor Doug Franklin, Service and Safety Director Eddie Colbert, Auditor Vince Flask and Law Director Enzo Cantalamessa.
The Nov. 8, 2023, ordinance approving the raises contains a provision allowing pay increases to continue indefinitely by tying the wages of City Council and nine top officials to the the wages of the city's highest paid employee.
For instance, because of the raises, the base salary of Franklin has risen over the past three years from $87,776 to $107,463, which is "exactly 1 percent above the highest city wage-earner's base salary," according to the 2023 ordinance and an Oct. 20, 2026, document showing current wages of city employees.
The salaries of the other eight city officials rose based on a percentage of Franklin's pay rate. The other five officials getting raises were a deputy auditor four assistant law directors.
The 2023 ordinance also increased the wages of council members from $11,109 per year in 2023 to $21,493 per year now. That figure is tied to the mayor's wage in that the wages of the 11 council members must be no lower than 20 percent of the mayor's annual base wages, as described in the the 2023 ordinance.
Council members also became eligible for city health care coverage as part of the 2023 legislation, but the cost of the health insurance is not part of the $21,493 that council members now earn, according to Flask.
The Tribune Chronicle reported in 2023 that the pay raises would increase Cantalamessa's pay from $86,652 in 2023 to $97,822 in 2024 and $103,812 by 2025. Flask's pay was scheduled to rise from $80,724 in 2023 to $97,822 in 2024 and $103,812 in 2025.
And Colbert's pay was scheduled to rise from $82,825 in 2023 to $96,844 in 2024 and $102,772 by 2025.
REFERENDUM
It has been about 3 1/2 months since former City Council member Ken MacPherson succeeded in getting a referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot to repeal the council raises, replace those with something smaller and require any future wage increases for council or the other nine public officials to be approved by voters instead of happening automatically.
When the referendum made the ballot in late July, MacPherson said ballot language can sometimes be confusing, so he issued a press release stating that he wanted it to be "crystal clear with the voters: a YES vote means less money for politicians." He stated, "Voting YES means we repeal the raises, eliminate the automatic escalators and reform the system so that the voters have the final say.”
MacPherson also stated that the referendum does not affect the city's union contracts, collective bargaining or the pay of "city workers, police officers or firefighters."
At the time the raises were being approved, Councilman Greg Greathouse said discussions about raising the pay of elected officials began when Flask and Cantalamessa sought to raise the wages of their assistants.
Cantalamessa said the law department had lost one assistant prosecutor and had concerns about losing another and felt that a pay increase was needed to reverse that trend. By 2023, it had been 15 years since City Council or the nine elected officials and their assistants had received pay raises, officials said.
Voting for the pay increases in 2023 were were council members Todd Johnson, Greathouse, James Shaffer, Ashley McBride, Cheryl Saffold, Ron White and at-large council members Helen Rucker and Gary Steinbeck. Johnson, McBride, Saffold, and Steinbeck are no longer on council. Former council members Andrew Herman and MacPherson voted no.
The referendum language on Nov. 3 ballot states that if the referendum is approved, in addition to taking away automatic pay increases, the wage for council members will be set at $16,500 per year, which is part way between the $11,109 per year council earned in 2023 and the $21,493 that council members make now. The wages will remain at that point until changed by a vote of the public.
The "full language" of the referendum petition MacPherson turned in to the Trumbull County Board of Elections will be available at polling places, said Trumbull County Board of Elections Director Stephanie Penrose. It explains more than the language on the ballot.
The "full language" states that if the referendum is approved, the wages of the four elected officials and their assistants will be set to the wage that the elected official or assistant makes at the time of the Nov. 3 election and will "remain unchanged unless by by ballot vote of the people," meaning their wages will remain what they are now.
RUCKER
Rucker told the Tribune Chronicle recently the reason the raises were instituted in 2023 was because "we couldn't attract people to our professional positions (in city government), nor to council. People didn't want to run for council. We hadn't gotten a raise, and we were well below minimum wage. And we didn't even have health care," she said.
"We couldn't get professional people to run for council. A lot of people who would have been vital to (serve on council) wouldn't do it just because of the money." She said people who did run for City Council "were put in the position where they've got to go get a job, which they did. When you are a council person, you are out here in the streets every day. Anything can happen to you," like an injury, requiring health care. She said there are "five or six people on council who are retired.
She said the city's finances had got into bad shape around 2008, so City Council members "gave up our wage, and we gave up our health care. We froze everybody's wages, and council gave up its healthcare." She said she believes council members would do it again if the need arose.
"Since that time, through the history of Warren, we have always taken care of our safety forces," Rucker said. "When we gave up our raise, it was to bring back safety forces." She said City Council give-backs allowed the city to bring back one or two employees. "We did it on our own. And that is our job to do that. This (referendum) takes away our power to set wages. But that's one of council's main jobs. We set everybody's wages."
GREATHOUSE
Greathouse wrote a letter to the Tribune Chronicle this week, responding to criticisms about City Council members earning about $20,000 a year for attending council meetings.
"Meetings are but a small part of it. The rest of the month is filled with meetings, emails, texts and phone calls from residents with questions about city services or problems with the water and streets," Greathouse stated.
He added, "We are in touch with city departments, looking into issues and working out solutions with the public. A council member does not clock out when the meeting is over. To label the position part-time simply because there is no 40-hour week is a convenient way to make the compensation seem excessive. But it is not an honest appraisal of the work. If your councilperson is only working "part time," you voted for the wrong person."