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Voters in Warren have a chance today to correct an overcorrection.
Confused? Not to worry. Voters who live in the city will be asked to vote on an ordinance that -- if passed -- would do away with Warren City Council's exorbitant raises, which were passed in a vote three years ago this week.
The current referendum, proposed by former city council member Ken MacPherson, reads as follows on the ballot:
Shall the Ordinance to immediately rescind and replace the pay raises for City Council in Warren, Ohio, and eliminate all future automatic increases for elected officials, be passed?
The answer -- we say -- is a resounding yes! Those raises were voted into existence on Nov. 8, 2023, but not by the people who have been paying for them ever since. Warren City Council members passed the legislation
In an editorial published hours before the vote, we urged council members not to do so. We wrote:
According to the proposed legislation, the mayor's salary must remain 1% higher than the base salary of the highest paid-city employee.
Many other elected and appointed city officials also would see increases, all inextricably tied together as a percentage of the mayor's salary.
The legislation approved in 2023 also allows for health care coverage for council members who elect to take it. That's even more for the taxpayers of Warren to support.
We weren't against pay adjustments for council members nor even for other city officials. But raises of 89% -- apparently to make up for 15 years without adjustments -- were a bit much. So, too, was the plan to ensure that the mayor's salary would forever be 1% higher than the base salary of the city's highest-paid city employee.
We could have backed a far more modest plan than the one developed by Ward 3 council member Greg Greathouse. In 2023, Greathouse met with our editorial board to try to make a case for the legislation he proposed.
From our 2023 editorial:
Greathouse told us the discussion began when elected officials said they struggle to retain good employees who could not receive raises because they were tied to their elected bosses' salaries.
Greathouse also stressed that it has been 15 years since any elected official in Warren received a pay increase, and he was hopeful these increases could help make up that lost income. He believes higher pay will help attract better candidates and also help retain employees who answer to these elected officials who also could see increases.
Greathouse also tried to make a case against MacPherson's proposql -- and the continuation of the pay raises -- in an Oct. 24 op-ed in the Tribune Chronicle. His argument is essentially that the city council raises were (and are) deserved because while those jobs are considered part-time positions, council members do more than just go to meetings. Greathouse also stressed that there were no adjustments from 2008-23.
Warren City Council members nearly doubled their pay with a single vote. We were against it then and our position hasn't changed in the three years since.
Council members' salaries are now $20,974. How many part-time jobs pay that well in Warren, where the median income for a full-time worker 25-and-up is $32,759 and the median household income is just $5,000 higher?
Sure, raises were probably a good idea after 15 years without any. But 89%? If you're up for a challenge, go ask your boss for an 89% raise and see how he or responds. Good luck.
Then there are the so-called "forever raises" for city officials. This was also simply too much. James Walker, a Warren resident, looked into the numbers for Warren and Mansfield, a slightly larger Ohio city with a similar industrial history in his own Oct. 24 op-ed.
When it comes to police officers, the cities' pay is almost identical. But where Warren -- with about 38,200 residents to Mansfield's roughly 47,500 -- surges ahead in spending is in the salaries of then mayor, law director, auditor and safety-service director. All of those officials in Warren make more than their Mansfield counterparts. In some cases, the pay edge is significant for Warren officials.
That disparity will only continue to grow unless Warren voters decide enough is enough. We suggest they deliver a message with their ballots today.
The message? Live within your means, the way the rest of us must. And if you want to be paid more, clear it with the people you represent first.
SCRIPTURE
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Hebrews 12:22-23 NIV