What kind of mayor does Ketchum want, and what should that person be paid?
Those were two of the questions raised during a public hearing Monday, Aug. 6, to discuss a proposed Ketchum City Council ordinance that would double the mayor's salary and increase compensation for council members.
After almost an hour, during which residents spoke for and against the proposal, the council unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance. There will be two more public hearings on the ordinance, which would increase the mayor's salary from $1,500 to $3,000 monthly while council member salaries would go from $1,250 to $1,666.67 per month.
Councilman Steve Shafran said the total amount of the increases was small when considering the city's annual budget.
"It's a $24,000 item in a $10 million budget," he said.
Jerry Seiffert, a former Ketchum mayor and current Idaho Mountain Express advertising salesman, supported the increases when he spoke of the difficulty of the job.
"When the heat goes up in the kitchen you're not going to believe it," he said. "It's never going to be easy ... so again for a lot of reasons it's quite reasonable."
Thirty-year resident and former City Attorney Ed Lawson agreed, saying the jobs were more time consuming than they used to be.
"You know you are not in the positions you are in because of the money," Lawson said.
But longtime resident Vicky Graves said people would not be happy with the proposal.
"When this hits the paper, you're going to have a lot of comments," she said. "Your doubling your salary (for the mayor's office) is not going to be popular."
Do you want to be led by the "retired and affluent," Hall asked, adding that the money would come from the general budget.
The governing body has had no raises in six years, said Councilman Baird Gourlay, adding in one month last year he put in 120 hours of work.
"The mayor deserves it," Gourlay said.
After enumeration was requested, the council agreed and directed city staff to compile a report detailing salary histories and comparisons.
State law says council pay raises must be passed in election years. If the council does not pass raises now the issue cannot be revisited for two years.
Sun Valley Mayor Jon Thorson also supported the Ketchum raises. The Sun Valley City Council voted last month to boost the mayor's salary from $18,000 per year ($1,500 per month) to $21,000 per year ($1,750 per month). Sun Valley City Council salaries will remain the same.
"You are running an enterprise ... it is probably the biggest enterprise in the state," he said. "They shouldn't require you to work for peanuts. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."
The hearing had its moments of drama when frequent and vocal government critic Mickey Garcia and the council exchanged words.
"You guys don't deserve a raise," Garcia said.
He went on to say "you're ethically challenged," and council members answered with calls to "gavel him" and to "keep it above board."
Hall gave Garcia a minute to complete his comments. Garcia is an Idaho Mountain Express distribution employee.
The higher the salary, the more people are drawn to run for office, Shafran said. He sees three models for mayor: a "country club" or affluent mayor, which he said was a bad idea; a 20-hour-a-week "two job" mayor; or a full-time mayor.
With a higher salary "the better served the community will be," he said.
There should be a future advisory vote on the issue if a full-time mayor is contemplated, said Councilwoman Terry Tracy.
Randy Hall
