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Riverton City Council discusses salaries during meeting

By Kelcie Hartley - | Jun 14, 2022

Courtesy Riverton City

In this screenshot from video, the Riverton City council holds a meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.

The Riverton City Council held a required hearing to approve adopting the compensation for elective and statutory officers, and all other municipal officers, for the new fiscal year during the June 7 regular meeting.

During the work session portion of the meeting, Councilwoman Tawnee McCay was elected as mayor pro tempore, due to the absence of Mayor Trent Staggs.

The council discussed giving city employees either a 4% or 5% cost-of-living adjustment and a 2% merit increase. McCay asked if elected officials would just receive the cost-of-living adjustment.

“What you see is the pay scale, as it current sits in the budget,” Administration Services Director Kevin Hicks said. “It is a 4% cost of living increase and some slight market adjustments. Those adjustments happen when we go and analyze our grades and compare them to other surrounding cities to make sure we are being competitive within the grades.”

An ordinance passed in spring 2020 setting the city council and mayoral salaries at a percentage of the midpoint in pay grade 20, according to Hicks.

“So, the only time the elected official salaries would change is when pay grade 20 changed,” he said. “The only time we have changed our scales is when the market dictated it, or a cost-of-living adjustment. This year, both of those whether it be on the left or right, a 4% or 5% increase will also be on the elected officials.”

Hicks said the council could give a 5% increase without padding the budget.

“At the time the budget was established, it was in late February to early March, at that point, we had about seven vacancies just through people leaving,” he said. “So, I put in the budget an estimate of what I thought we would be paying them. I also put in the budget that they would be taking family health because we had no idea what they would choose. Every time we go through the budget, I go back through all of the employees who didn’t choose health insurance and assume they will choose family health, again because they have every right to do so.”

He added that because open enrollment closed for the city’s health insurance option, the budget could not be changed.

During the regular council meeting, council members were in favor of moving the vote to the June 21 meeting to have all council members present.

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