Council member floats idea of pay raise for herself and her colleagues

No.

Ok one more positive on the newer members of the council. Hopefully they look towards the more fatty areas of the budget as well and disrupt the "business as usual" attitude that seems to always happen after the new members take their seats. Rose Mary Christian would do well to remember that it is very inappropriate to consider raises at this time of year. Its like they get in office and immediately try to vote themselves a raise. The new candidates ran for this office under the current compensation if it wasnt good enough then make sure to mention it during the campaign before you run for the seat.

NO-NO-NO!! These people new what the pay scale was when they ran for City Council

Yes.
The pay has not been raised since 1994. I say make it $1.00 per day, which would come out to $365.00 a year.

I think it's safe to assume that no one on the city council is there for the paycheck...That said, I don't think $1/day is unreasonable. Add a cent or two to your tax bill to cover it...

Kyle,
This is the only time of the year this can be brought up, budget time.
As for the pay rate, did you notice that 50% of the council seats went unchallenged last November? For the current $166.66 per month they get, it's not easy getting anyone to run when you also consider what they put up with.

By the way, where is the "fat" in the budget, other than (in my opinion) the Economic Development Coordinator?

Not even my phone bill. The job requires a cell phone, computer and an Internet connection. Just those bare minimum tools are tough for retired people to afford. Put on top of that dinners and other things your expected to attend and the job is expensive.

No Offense, but we spend a great deal of time on the school board as well, and we don't get paid a dime. I don't think there should be a salary at all to serve at the local level. Period.

Phil, you get what you pay for, take a look around, there is no one willing to run for office anymore. I think you need to cover expenses and create term limits.

no no and no , and yes Rose Mary does need the money . Her past actions speak loudly that she needs more money . Ask the past owners of Fedoras how desperate she is to grab anything that may be worth something .

How many people took a job at a stated wage rate? They know what the pay is when they took the job, so are those same people saying they should never get a pay raise?

I get that Charlie, but why are you using your phone if it cost so much? Why wouldn't you be given one from the city for city business? Meals I don't know what to tell you...besides, since we can't do anything without a party, why don't we ask the local parties to cover the expenses for meals.

All I'm saying is there are lots of people who give of their time and don't get compensated for it. We are in a period where we are consolidating, cutting and still talking about tax increases, and she's talking about raises? How about this...create some actual savings with all of these contracts and departments, lower taxes, and then maybe 85% of those polled won't scoff at your request.

Maybe we should populate our local governments the way we populate juries; everyone serves a term. Every month a new crew takes over council seats, board room and legislature. We could have a lottery, and bribes to remove oneself from eligibility to serve would replace taxes.

Maybe by city council not getting any raises ..then 1.5% in the budget that Malino put in for management raises, will be easy to was no to..How in the world did he get the idea that city council was going to give him a raise this year..Was he told this already by council..
Don't they make enough for a city of 15,000 people.........Charlie do you really think if council made double the pay they would get any type of different candidates

Geez

Where I live, City Council members receive over $45,000 each per year plus expenses of $28,500 each per year, plus an office staff.

Some of you are complaining about the Batavia council members basically working for free.

Citizens aren't complaining here.

@$2000. each per year in Batavia......why are you complaining?

Where do you live Tim?

Thomas Mooney wrote, "Ask the past owners of Fedoras how desperate she is to grab anything that may be worth something ."
Would you care to elaborate?

Yes...did she take a Fedora? Is that why they closed?

I'd be more inclined to believe that they closed because of poor management decisions and lack of trained staff.
I would also be inclined to believe that Rosemary had to take back the building (and fixtures) after their funding was depleted.
This isn't knocking those who ran Fedora's. It is just the nature of the beast. Many restaurants open, but few succeed.

Phil,
When you ran for City council, you never said you should serve for free and would give away the money and in recent times only Sam Barone has done that.
As for serving on the School Board for free, good. But you notice that last School Board election, only 3 people bothered to run.
And you know that it is hard to even get people to serve for free on City Committees anymore.

I think that after 18 years, the rate should go up.

Mark, I think the city should pay for expenses or provide the tools to do the job. I'm positive Rosemary has no intent to make money from being on council. She just needs to be reimbursed for expenses.

Political service should be all but mandatory. There would be a lot less complaining and more action if it was. You have to have rocks in your head to volunteer at this point.

John,

I didn't even know there was a "salary" when I ran, so I guess giving away something I wasn't aware would be hard. I ran for council because I thought I could make a difference. I thought I could be a positive voice, I didn't think that I was applying for a part time job. I was serving my community.

If those on council feel as if we should pay more money for them to serve their community, then I strongly disagree.

Again, I don't feel that ANY local servant should be paid. If this community thinks that paying people is the only thing that will entice people to run, then we have a serious issue.

My vote is "YES" give them a raise. Do the math on the 2k. It is less then $6.00 per day.

Bea , Rose Mary had to call the cops because Fedoras was closing and they were taking out the equipment they bought . In her infamous wisdom she was trying to gain equipment to entice more buyers with being fully operational , Rose Mary was told by the Sheriffs that she can't take ownership of equipment that is not hers just because it is in the building . She stood outside watching every move they made with the Sherrifs watching Rose Mary to make shure she did't intervein . Not to mention the Wall Mart fiasco , you can trust her all you want but I don't and either do many others .