CHARLESTON, W.Va. – New bills introduced to the Charleston City Council would increase salaries for the mayor and the municipal court judge, as well as per-meeting pay for city council members.
The three bills were introduced during the council’s Tuesday meeting.
Currently, the mayor and municipal court judge are paid $100,000 and $35,000 a year respectively. City council members receive $200 per council meeting attended, which could result in being paid $5,600 a year.
If the bill passes, the mayor and municipal court judge’s salaries would increase to $125,000 and $40,000 respectively, and city council members would be paid $250 per attended meeting, or up to $7,000 a year.
The city council consists of 20 ward and 6 at-large members.
Finance Committee Chairman Bobby Reishman says he wants to make sure council members are paid justly for their work.
“There’s more time involved then just the meetings we have here,” Reishman said. “I mean, you have to be out, you have to be in your neighborhood and there’s many more meetings they attend and so forth.”
According to city code, the last pay raise for the office of mayor and municipal court judge was in June 2007, while the last raise for city council members happened in June 2011.
If the bills became law, the pay raises go into effect January 2019.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for March 6 at 7:00 p.m.