The last time we had a county compensation commission and debate about what county commissioners would get, Dillard Craiger stated, “If you put out peanuts, you’ll get monkeys.” In other words, if you make the compensation too high, you will motivate people to run for office because of the salary.

Even at $15,000 it becomes quite a pull. That amount can make a real difference in a household budget and it can be hard to relinquish. This also serves to prevent a turnover since incumbents are highly motivated to maintain that income flow.

I supported the council’s raise from $10,000 to $15,000 because it is a serious commitment of time and also an opportunity loss. (Council service may interfere with many other professional and personal priorities.) But on balance, I think it dangerous to increase it much more.

Steve Postema appears to be the highest-paid salaried City Attorney in the State of Michigan. He earns near double what many other persons holding city attorney positions in other Metro Detroit communities. $100,000 per year is near the average and Postema pulls in over $177,000 per annum.

Postema is running for circuit court in 2012. There are two open seats on the ballot and many local residents are backing Carol Kuhnke or Jim Fink, who are likewise planning to file for those seats.

I hope your article will bring others to the table who are willing to serve, not only on the LOOC but also on the other committees and groups associated with Ann Arbor city government.

Perhaps it will spur those responsible to update the city web site with the vacancies for all the committees and commissions.

The city attorney must be way too busy to research violations of the law and conflicts of interest?

Cue the violin music for the poor poor Mayor and Council members who have to struggle in their part time positions without a major pay raise, while from the legal advice we’re getting from our City Attorney, it looks like someone is vastly overpaid.

It’s not clear to me if you mean the significant increase that councilmembers as well as the mayor received as a result of the 2003 LOCC session (implemented in 2004 and 2005), or if you’re identifying the somewhat larger percentage increase received by the mayor as compared to the increase received by councilmembers. But in either case, a good deal of that 2003 history is laid out in the previous article:
“Ann Arbor Council Service: What’s it Worth?”

As for other council-manager cities, my recollection was that Ann Arbor’s mayoral salary was slightly less than in Grand Rapids (population ~188,000), but I was wrong. According to this 2009 Grand Rapids Press article, the GR mayor’s salary was set in that year by the LOCC at $39,141.

Re: [2] “And is there a quorum requirement?”

At the meeting, it was discussed that a quorum for the LOCC is four. That means that they needed all four current members to attend, in order to convene the meeting at all. A cursory search of the state statute and the city’s website for commission bylaws didn’t turn up voting rules, but I would guess that all votes need a majority of the seven members, (that is, four votes) in order to be considered passed. So every vote would need to be unanimous, when you have three vacancies.

For anyone who’d like to volunteer to serve in 2013 here’s a link to the application form: [link] (C’mon, it’s two years away, go ahead and sign up for the LOCC, there’s no work to do for at least a year … you’re not even ALLOWED to meet in 2012 …)

1) It would be interesting to know if we do in fact have the highest paid non-CEO mayor of any city in Michigan (or the Midwest). The performance of our mayor notwithstanding, the pay differential that exploded in 2004-05 between the mayor and council members is baffling and—for the lack of any contradictory information in that shoddy meeting packet—I’ll venture to say unheard of.

2) I find it hard to believe that there isn’t some reason that no one made an effort for the LOCC to get fully appointed. And is there a quorum requirement?

3) And as for the contention that neither the mayor nor any of the council members are taking on these jobs “for the money,” well, that’s a sentiment befitting a mayoral appointee!