Greeley rejects pay hikes for council, mayor

GREELEY — Fort Collins and Boulder have often been held up as examples for what other governments do, but the Greeley City Council has stopped short of following their new pay models for elected officials.

Greeley’s human resources director, Martha Lanaghen, presented the City Council with options for changing the council’s and mayor’s annual pay last week. City code requires council pay to be discussed every four years, and they have until the end of this year to make any changes. Council members overwhelmingly opted to make no changes to their pay. The Greeley council and mayor’s salaries are some of the lowest among nine cities in the immediate areas from Boulder to Fort Collins. 

In presenting options to the council, Lanaghen suggested that Greeley follow what Fort Collins moved to in 2022, and what Boulder voters most recently approved through Ballot question 2C: paying councilmembers and mayors based on a percentage of their area’s average median income. Fort Collins pays their mayor 75% of the area’s AMI (which comes out to $62,400 a year); and its council 50% (which is $41,600 a year) — making that body the highest-paid council in Northern Colorado.

“The theory is that higher pay would attract more working-class candidates, potentially increasing the socioeconomic diversity of councils,” Lanaghen told the Greeley council.

Boulder voters earlier this month approved 50% of AMI ($51,100 a year) for its mayor and 40% of AMI ($40,800 a year) for its council members. The new pay structure will take effect in 2026. Until then, the Boulder council remains the lowest-paid in Northern Colorado.

Lanaghen recommended paying the Greeley mayor 30% of the Greeley Metropolitan Statistical area’s $80,188 average median income for a single-person household. For mayor, that would have equated to a $6,000 a year raise to $24,056 (or $2,004 a month). For council members, who would be paid 20% of that AMI, that would be a $3,438 per-year raise to $16,038 (or $1,336 a month).

Council members immediately shut down any talk of raising theirs or future body’s salaries.

“I’m not going to vote for any increase,” Councilmember Tommy Butler said. “I’d be amenable to sending this to voters. Honestly, I think we don’t want to attract people who do this for the money. We want people who genuinely care about public policy. If $3,000 is the difference between running for City Council or not … I’m more in favor of a small increase. I just think voters didn’t send us here to give ourselves money.”

Councilmembers Deb Deboutez and Melissa McDonald, however, noted that the job does take a lot of time, which not everyone in the community can afford.

“I’m somewhat supportive of this, and the reason why is, I’m a business owner, so it’s easy for me to leave during the day to go to meetings …  or tours and ride-alongs,” McDonald said. “And all those take time away from my business. For someone who has a 9-to-5 job, it’s not easy to get away. If this is a way for someone with a full-time job to run a campaign … An option to an employer may be to take time off without pay and this would help supplement that. These are not livable numbers. … I just feel like right now, it’s geared toward business owners or retirees that can make this schedule work.”

DeBoutez said the job on council requires much more time, making it more of a full-time job that few would consider doing anyway.

“Really good, qualified citizens who want to serve wouldn’t even consider taking a part-time job so they could do this,” DeBoutez said.

The council instead opted to keep their salaries the same for the next four years, many stating that they do not do the job for the money.

“I can’t run again, but if I could, I’m not interested in a raise,” said Mayor John Gates. “I don’t do this for the money.”

McDonald and Councilmember Johnny Olson said they weren’t aware when they were first elected that they did get paid.

“It’s hard to have a full-time job and serve city council,” Olson said. “But I also believe that people need to want to serve their community. This is something that’s really hard. It’s hard to say I want to add more money to (our) pockets.”

Added Councilmember Brett Payton: “When I talk to people about serving on council, no one ever talks about the pay being a prohibitive or deciding factor. … This is more of a service dedication. That’s my approach.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn