City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 9/18/12
In a token but decisive effort to shore up this small city's budget, the Newcastle City Council voted 4 to 3 to decrease regular council member salaries to $500 per month, and decrease the mayor's salary to $600 per month. A $200-or-so decrease. This action was taken on Tues., Sept. 18th, despite the improved, if not overly rosy, budget forecast by Finance Director, Chris Olson. Olson had said earlier in the meeting that the city's revenues were expected to increase more than previously expected because of increases in sources such as retail sales taxes and development revenue, and that a budget surplus would ensue. Councilmember Bill Erxleben did not seem particularly impressed with the forecast as he noted that needed repairs to streets and roads in Newcastle would conceivably take up a large part of future budgets, and implied that nobody should be jumping for joy over Newcastle's financial future. Councilmember John Dulcich and Mayor Rich Crispo, in his dual role as mayor and councilmember, took a more conciliatory tone regarding the budget, as the mayor, in particular, downplayed Erxleben's concern that streets and roads would be as troublesome and burdensome for the city as Erxleben portended. Erxleben said that it was the city's responsibility to have a first-rate infrastructure system, putting particular emphasis on streets and roads. Councilmember Carol Simpson said that the city must not neglect security concerns besides infrastructure concerns, implying that the size of the city's police force was not keeping pace with Newcastle's population growth.
Regarding the salary decrease ordinance, Councilmember Simpson and Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen both were concerned about who would be the Newcastle councilmembers of the future if the salaries were so low that it would tend to dissuade some members of the public from running for office; Jensen, in particular, stressed the importance of having a diverse council. Councilmember Dulcich suggested that any council member who voted for the ordinance should return some or all of their salary to the city, now, as any such solicitous feeling could be immediately effected. He said the whole exercise about salaries was a "feel-good" proposition, and that it couldn't take effect anyway, by law, until new council terms took effect. Erxleben, at first, said that he would vote against the ordinance because it didn't decrease salaries low enough for his taste, but later changed his mind, apparently because his vote looked decisive, which it indeed was.
The council, by a vote of 6 - 1, Gordon Bisset dissenting, also approved a "temporary" public works project regarding storm water management to be directed by Public Works Director, Mark Rigos, at a cost of about fifty thousand dollars.
Votes regarding decreasing salaries were as follows:
Yes: Crispo, Bisset, Erxleben and Buri
No: Simpson, Dulcich and Jensen
[revised on 9/19/12]
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