ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on May 15, 1996.
Roanoke City Manager Bob Herbert's salary is $110,000. It will rise
to $115,000 after July 1 as a result of final action City Council took
on the fiscal 1996 budget Monday. Herbert's current salary was incorrect
in a story Tuesday.
In putting the finishing touches on a $152.5 million fiscal 1997 budget, Roanoke City Council gave itself a pay raise Monday after hashing out how much in closed-door talks last week.
Under a pay plan council approved 5-1, Mayor David Bowers will get a $3,000 raise to $18,000 beginning July 1, and six other council members' salaries will rise $1,000 to $14,000 annually.
City Manager Bob Herbert's pay will rise from $100,000 to $115,000.
The raises were the first council approved for itself since 1990, when members' pay was raised to $13,000. The mayor's salary has been fixed at $15,000 since 1987.
Both the mayor and council reached state-mandated salary caps for local elected officials years ago. However, the General Assembly raised the cap this year, effective July 1, to $25,000 for mayor and $23,000 for council members in a city with Roanoke's population.
Bowers' pay will grow 20 percent under the new pay plan; council members' salaries will rise 7.7 percent. City workers on average next year will see their paychecks climb by 4.5 percent under the budget council formally adopted.
The lone vote against the increase came from Councilman Mac McCadden, who argued it's wrong for council to grant itself a salary increase without giving the public some advance notification.
The pay raise first came in a closed session held late Thursday after council wrapped up regular budget study sessions, which were open to the public.
The increase was listed on Monday's agenda as "an ordinance establishing the annual salaries of the mayor, vice mayor and council members" with no specific amounts mentioned.
There was no discussion during the vote. McCadden spoke against it after the meeting adjourned.
"Maybe philosophically I agree [with an increase], but we should have referred it to budget study to give the public some forewarning that this might occur," McCadden said. "I think the issue needs to be raised in public."
Gainsboro activist Evelyn Bethel agreed.
"It gives the appearance of wrongdoing because it's in executive session," she said. "People's taxes are paying for it, right?''
But Vice Mayor William White defended the increase and the way council went about it.
"It's a salary matter," White said. "It's just like [we] don't discuss salaries of council-appointed officers in public."
The state Freedom of Information Act allows public bodies to meet in executive session for the purpose of discussing pay raises, although the law does not require the elected officials to do so.
White also defended council members' raises, calling them "fair and proper."
"It's been six years since we last got a raise; that amounts to [less than] 2 percent per year," he said. In most cases, rank-and-file city workers get annual increases.
Considering the mayor's salary has remained at $15,000 since 1987, Bowers noted his raise amounts to about 2.2 percent a year.
"After giving it some thought, I'm intending to donate a portion of it to two charities, the Catholic Historical Society and the Harrison Museum" of African American Culture, Bowers said. He said he hadn't decided how much.
Council also raised the pay of five of its six appointed officers by 4.5 percent, the average other city employees are getting.
Finance Director Jim Grisso's salary will rise from $84,000 to $88,000; Director of Real Estate Valuation Will Claytor's pay will go from $67,000 to $70,000; City Clerk Mary Parker's salary will move from $60,000 to $62,700; and Municipal Auditor Bob Bird's pay will climb from $66,000 to $69,000.
City Attorney Wilburn Dibling was granted a 4.6 percent increase, from $98,000 to $102,500.
Council was criticized last year for granting appointed officers pay increases of up to 7.8 percent, when city workers on average were getting 4.7 percent raises.
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