(Updated at 2:40 p.m.) Vienna officials have released a proposed budget that maintains the town’s current real estate tax rate, despite continued economic challenges from inflation and supply chain issues.
The $53.8 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which starts July 1, holds the tax rate at $0.1950 per $100 of assessed value. Combined with a cumulative 3-cent reduction over the previous three years, the town will have cut its tax rate by 14% since 2021, Town Manager Mercury Payton said in a message to Mayor Linda Colbert and the town council.
However, residential property owners can still expect higher bills, thanks to rising home values. Residential properties assessed at over $1 million — the average for a second year — now make up 36.4% of all homes, exceeding their 29.9% share last year and the 26.7% of homes valued at $500,000 to $800,000 this year.
“Real estate taxes have increased due to increasing assessments, as Vienna is a very desirable place to live,” Payton said in the budget proposal. “The average residential tax bill is estimated at $2,204, a 6.5 percent increase over last year, due to a 7.0 percent increase in assessed value of existing (no growth) properties.”
Strong returns on cash deposits, sales taxes and business license fees will help fund a $3.7 million, or 7.5%, increase in the budget compared to fiscal year 2024. Most of that will cover increased costs related to water and sewer needs and borrowing.
The town anticipates borrowing $1.55 million for 22 new vehicles, including four police cars, three police motorcycles, one dump truck, pickup trucks, a tractor, a mower and two trailers.
“Economic trends in inflation and supply chain difficulties continue and are leading to pressure on expenditures without a commensurate increase in revenue,” Payton wrote, noting that meals tax collections have been flat through the middle of FY 2024.
Still, Vienna is projecting a $554,000, or 7.6%, increase overall in local tax revenue — fueled by business
licenses and sales taxes — and parks and recreation fees are expected to go up by $259,000 or 19.7%.
Priorities addressed by the proposed budget include compensation increases totaling 4% for general employees and 5.5% for sworn police officers, which “will assist with…recruitment and retention pressures.”
Starting on July 1, the town will implement new child and family care leave policies for employees who have become new parents or need to care for an immediate family member.
Employees who’ve worked for Vienna for at least 12 months will get six weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted or fostered child, or to get pregnancy-related medical care. The family care leave policy offers up to two weeks or 80 hours of paid time off so employees can care for a sick or injured family member.
Identified as a top priorty of the town council in a Jan. 22 work session, the new leave policies don’t have a direct cost, but they “may result in slight increases in overtime to cover positions utilizing the leave,” according to the proposed budget. Read More
As anticipated, Fairfax County is looking at a tight budget for the coming year that will once again lean primarily on residential property owners to offset a declining commercial tax base.
County Executive Bryan Hill has proposed a 4-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, even as he presented an advertised fiscal year 2025 budget to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday) that largely limits spending to obligations like public schools and employee compensation.
If adopted, this would be the county’s first real estate tax rate increase in six years, Hill said in a message to the board. Last year, Hill proposed a flat tax rate that the board ultimately reduced by 1.5 cents to $1.095 per $100 of assessed value, though property owners still saw their bills go up by $412, on average, due to rising home values.
The proposed tax rate of $1.135 per $100 for FY 2025, which starts on July 1, would raise the average tax bill by just over $524 and generate $129.28 million in revenue, according to the county.
“We are seeing some residential growth, but our commercial values have declined, resulting in an overall real estate growth of just over 2.7%,” Hill said. “Paired with significant expenditure pressures — particularly for employee pay and benefits, transportation requirements, and continued inflationary impacts — balancing this proposed budget has required difficult decisions.”
Home values up, commercial values down
Real estate tax revenue provides about 66% of the county’s general funds, which supports most county operations, from public safety agencies to libraries and parks. For FY 2025, more than three-quarters of that revenue (76.7%) will come from residential owners, who are facing an average assessment increase of 2.86% for 2024.
Though the number of home sales in the county last year declined, prices have continued to climb “due to low inventory,” Hill said. The average value of the county’s over 357,000 taxable residential properties for 2024 is $744,526, up from $723,825 in 2023.
By contrast, non-residential property values have dropped for the first time in three years by 1.24%, a dip mostly driven by a struggling office market. About 21.6 million square feet, or 17.2%, of the county’s 119.5 million square feet of office space is vacant — an uptick from last year’s rate of 16.7%, which was already a 10-year high.
With another 1 million square feet of office space under construction, mostly in Metro’s Silver Line corridor, the pressure to revitalize or replace under-utilized office buildings will likely only intensify going forward.
“That space is going to be snapped up quickly, which is going to create situations around our county that will be then vacant,” Hill said when asked by Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk about possible remedies. “We have to figure out ways to fill those spaces, whether it is converting or doing something different on that plot of land. We have done a pretty good job in certain areas of revitalizing…but we need to do more.”
Schools and compensation dominate spending
With some growth projected from other sources, including an 8.8% increase in personal property taxes and a proposed 10-cent-per-pack increase in taxes on cigarettes, the county anticipates getting $363.22 million more in revenue than it did this budget year.
However, Hill says he proposed spending only on “adjustments which I feel are essential to maintain the quality workforce and dependable services upon which our residents rely.” Read More
For the first time in over four decades, Fairfax County’s police officers and firefighters got an opportunity this year to negotiate their pay, benefits and working conditions with the local government.
The collective bargaining process led to new contracts for Fairfax County Police Department and the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department employees that union representatives and county leaders both lauded as meaningful wins for public safety workers.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 on Dec. 5 to approve the agreements with the Fairfax chapter of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association (SSPBA) and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2068, committing the board to making a “good faith” effort to funding the pay increases and other contractual obligations in the county’s next budget.
Set to retire at the end of this year, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross called the collective bargaining agreements “the heaviest lift” of her 28 years as chair of the board’s personnel committee. Though there was interest in letting employees negotiate their contracts when she was first elected, Virginia didn’t give localities that authority until 2021.
“It took seven terms to get us there and a change in the General Assembly,” Gross said. “But I am very pleased we are where we are…I think we are now in a place where we will be able to move forward with our employees, especially for our [public] safety and firefighters, and this is a nice note to go out.”
What’s in the contracts
Gross and Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay credited IAFF Local 2068 as an early advocate for collective bargaining. The board approved an ordinance in October 2021 that gave police, firefighters and general county employees the ability to negotiate their contracts through a union, an option that Fairfax County Public Schools workers also secured this past March.
Key provisions of the Local 2068 agreement include a new pay plan with a higher starting salary and annual raises for the first 25 years of service, pay for training, an additional period of light duty for workers after a pregnancy and a pay incentive for higher education, according to IAFF Local 2068 President Robert Young.
The contract also lets the union create a committee to review and make recommendations on insurance coverage, and both parties agreed to form a Joint Labor Management Committee to recommend future contract changes — potentially including reduced work hours for FCFRD workers who go into the field. A study to determine the cost and a timeline for a reduction must be completed by Jan. 1, 2026.
“We believe that this contract will be a solid foundation for future negotiations and give us the ability to collaborate to resolve future issues,” Young said in a statement. “…We were able to forecast some future needs like work hours and some of our vendors for benefits.”
Young said he’s confident that the contract’s financial components will be funded in the fiscal year 2025 budget, which will start on July 1, after the county and union negotiators “spent several months working to deliver a contract that was fiscally responsible and resolved some of the issues our members faced.”
Ratified by union members on Nov. 8, the contract will be in effect from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027. In addition to firefighters, medics, mechanics and other FCFRD personnel, it covers 911 call takers and dispatchers in the Department of Public Safety Communications.
On the police side, the SSPBA announced that its contract will increase officer pay by 12% over the next three fiscal years, provide “more equitable access” to leave and a more “streamlined” grievance process that includes the right of employees under investigation to be accompanied by a union steward. Read More
All Fairfax County Public Schools employees will get a bump in their paychecks, starting next year, after the school board unanimously approved 2% raises last week.
The additional pay was made possible by the budget that the Virginia General Assembly belatedly adopted in early September, which provided money to raise teacher salaries across the state. But school board members and FCPS workers argue that overall state funding for education falls far short of what they need.
“While the 2% raise is a start, it is clearly insufficient in ensuring our professionals are compensated at their full value, nor does it bridge the gap enough for family liaisons, drivers, [instructional assistants] and others to earn a wage that allows them to reside in Fairfax County,” Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson, chair of the school board’s budget committee, said before the vote on Thursday (Oct. 26).
Effective Jan. 1, the 2% raise will ensure FCPS can “retain teachers at the status quo, essentially,” keeping pace with other school districts in the state, Mount Vernon District Representative Karen Corbett-Sanders said. Loudoun, Arlington, Prince William and Alexandria schools have also approved the increase, FCPS staff told the board.
State formula underestimates school staffing costs
According to the meeting agenda, FCPS is getting a $19.7 million increase in state revenue from the revised fiscal year 2024 budget. However, only $5.3 million of that was designated for the 2% raises, with the remainder intended as “reimbursement” for support staff positions, Anderson explained at the school board meeting.
With the raises costing a total of $30.5 million, FCPS is taking advantage of “flexibility allowed with” the support staff funding to allocate that $14.4 million to the compensation supplement, Anderson said. The remaining gap will be filled by $10.8 million from the school system’s staffing reserve, which is set aside in case more positions are needed than anticipated in each year’s budget.
The reserve will still have enough money for about 99 staff positions, FCPS Chief Financial Officer Leigh Burden told the board, noting that new positions aren’t often added after October “because of the potential disruption of adding teacher positions once the school year has started.”
In other words, the “burden” of funding the school system and its employees “rests largely on local funds,” Anderson said.
The standards of quality (SOQ) formula that Virginia uses to calculate the number of positions each school division needs and how much they will cost “substantially” underestimates actual school needs, according to a report released in July by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), which evaluates programs and provides state agency oversight for the General Assembly.
The report found that Virginia provides 14% less funding per student than the national average, trailing Maryland by 18% and West Virginia by a whopping 25%.
“The points made in the study about Virginia being one of the lowest paid states for teachers in the United States is an abysmal statistic to behold,” Tamara Derenak Kaufax, who represents Franconia District on the school board, said. “…We cannot continue to be last in the nation in this, with the pay for our teachers in particular, so it is something that we will continue to fight for.” Read More
The workers who clean office buildings around Fairfax County won’t have to hit the picket lines anytime soon.
The union representing about 9,100 commercial office cleaners in the D.C. area reached a tentative agreement yesterday (Tuesday) for a new contract with property owners in the Washington Service Contractors Association (WSCA), averting a potential strike.
Expressing frustration with wages that haven’t kept up with the rising costs of food, rent and other basic needs, union members in Fairfax and Loudoun counties voted unanimously last week to authorize a strike if an agreement wasn’t reached by the time their existing contract expires on Sunday (Oct. 15).
“These men and women proved that collective action has the power to improve jobs and lives, just like other low-wage workers deserve nationwide,” said Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, the Service Employees International Union’s branch for the D.C. region.
Under the proposed contract, which will go to members for ratification next week, cleaners will get hourly wage increases of $3.55 to $3.75 over four years, according to the union. Pay currently ranges from $12.50 in Loudoun and Prince George’s counties — just over Virginia’s minimum wage — to $18.60.
The union’s 3,000-plus cleaners in Fairfax County, Arlington and Alexandria, who currently earn $15 an hour, will get the $3.55 raise, set to take effect in increments every July 1 through 2027, according to WSCA negotiator Peter Chatilovicz.
The larger increase of $3.75 will go to Loudoun and Prince George’s workers to keep them above the minimum wage, which will rise to $15 on Jan. 1, 2026.
The contract also preserves existing benefits for both full-time and part-time cleaners, per 32BJ SEIU:
Under the contract, janitors maintain access to free professional training and language courses as well as legal services for concerning issues such as immigration, family and matrimonial matters, and housing law among others. Full-time cleaners in all regions will maintain employer-paid health care, including prescription drugs, dental, vision and life insurance. Part-time cleaners will continue to receive life insurance and family dental benefits.
According to the union, the agreement was reached over seven bargaining sessions that started on June 22.
While pay was the primary point of contention, the union also took issue with a proposal that would’ve reduced shifts for new employees from five to four hours long. The suggestion was taken off the table last week, as local elected officials — including almost all Fairfax County supervisors — signed pledges and appeared at rallies in support of the cleaners.
A 32BJ spokesperson confirmed that the change in shifts was not part of the tentative agreement.
“I think it was a fair agreement for both sides,” Chatilovicz said. “We managed to, I think, give some very reasonable wage increases to the employees. Benefits all stayed the same without any further costs, and like I said, I think both sides were pleased to be able to reach an agreement before we had to worry about the contract expiration.”
The contract negotiations with the WSCA came amid a frenzy of labor actions across the country. While film and TV writers recently ended a nearly five-month strike, Hollywood actors and the United Auto Workers are still on the picket lines, and health care workers for Kaiser Permanente may walk off the job again in early November after a strike from Oct. 4-7 failed to produce an agreement.
(Updated at 11:30 a.m.) Reston Association is considering a 10% increase in its annual membership assessment as part of a preliminary budget draft for fiscal year 2025.
The proposal — which is the first of what will likely be several drafts — was discussed at a Sept. 28 Board of Directors meeting. As previously reported, the budget would include new positions and cover membership recreational passes in the assessment fees.
Cummins said he plans to eliminate two positions in the budget — a staff accountant and a communications manager.
“These additions represent a more strategic approach to interdepartmental coordination, decision making and providing service for the membership,” Cummins wrote in a memo.
The fee would stand at $840 compared to $763 last year if RA uses $700,000 in cash to buy down the true cost of the membership fee. Without a cash infusion, the assessment would rise to $872.
New proposed positions could include a chief financial officer, land use planner, information technology director and business analyst.
Recreational passes would also be free for all RA members, returning the organization to a previous model that wrapped passes into the annual assessment paid by members. Some programs — like Totally Trucks — would also be included in the assessment. Nonmembers would still have to pay for passes and other events.
Cummins also hopes to increase lifeguard wages to bring them along with decreases in some recreation and Central Services Facility staff. The total increase amounts to $90,000.
“We are fairly behind in terms of the hourly pay rate,” Cummins said.
The budget also includes $30,000 in funding for a salary and compensation study and merit increases of up to 5%.
The proposal also included adding a convenience fee for credit card use, allowing RA to avoid absorbing $245,000 in annual charges from credit card companies. The convenience fee of $2.95 per credit card swipe would result in $25,000 in annual revenue.
A 20% “nominal” fee increase for boat permits is also proposed, Cummins said.
Final action on the budget is not expected until November.
“Tonight is just the beginning of the process,” RA board president John Farrell said at the Sept. 28 meeting.
Another strike may be on the horizon for the D.C. area, this time led by office cleaners who say wages have stagnated even after they were expected to keep working through the pandemic.
About 9,100 janitors, more than 3,000 of them in Northern Virginia, are voting this week on whether to go on strike if they’re unable to agree on a new contract with the Washington Service Contractors Association (WSCA) before the existing one expires on Oct. 15.
Cleaners employed in commercial buildings across Fairfax and Loudoun counties unanimously voted on Tuesday (Oct. 3) to authorize a strike, following the lead of their colleagues in D.C., who voted a day earlier, according to 32BJ SEIU, the Service Employees International Union’s branch for the D.C. region.
Coinciding with a three-day strike by Kaiser Permanente employees that’s reportedly the largest ever by U.S. health care workers, Baltimore area cleaners were set to vote yesterday (Wednesday), followed by Montgomery County workers today and Arlington County workers tomorrow.
“No one wants to strike, but we are ready to strike if employers keep pushing cuts that cleaners can’t afford,” 32BJ SEIU Executive Vice President Jaime Contreras said.
According to the union, a core sticking point in the contract negotiations, which began in June, has been a proposed reduction in shift lengths from five to four hours for about 1,100 cleaners — a third of the Northern Virginia workforce.
The change would amount to a 20% pay cut for the affected cleaners, who would have earn $100 less per week and have less time to do the same amount of work, the union says.
Peter Chatilovicz, the WSCA’s lead negotiator, told FFXnow yesterday that proposal has been taken off the table, noting that it would’ve primarily affected D.C. workers. The goal was “to provide flexibility to bring in new workers,” not cut wages for existing ones, as commercial property owners adapt to a challenging office market, he said.
The region has lost about 1,000 office janitorial jobs in recent years, according to 32BJ SEIU. A union spokesperson confirmed the shifts proposal was “verbally” withdrawn, but as of last night, nothing has been put on the record in writing.
The cleaners and WSCA last held contract negotiations four years ago, and there’s a “tentative agreement” for the next one to be the same length, extending to October 2027, Chatilovicz says. He’s “cautiously optimistic” that a deal will be reached in time, but the two groups are still split on pay.
“That’s the big issue right now is coming up with a wage compromise so that employees who are not the highest paid employees in the area or in America get a fair wage during this time, and so that we’re able to still be competitive and deal with the issues in the industry,” Chatilovicz said. “So, it’s a typical negotiation where we’re trying to exchange proposals and come up with a compromise that management can live with and the union is satisfied with.”
Under their current contract, Fairfax County cleaners earn $15 per hour, while Loudoun cleaners get $12.50 an hour. They also receive benefits like paid vacation, holidays and sick leave, health insurance if they work full-time and access to a training, education and legal services fund, per 32BJ SEIU.
While those rates exceed Virginia’s minimum wage, albeit just barely in Loudoun County, they’re not enough to match inflated prices and soaring rents, the union argues.
Alejandria Paz, a member of the union’s bargaining team who has worked as a cleaner at 1881 Campus Commons in Reston for over a decade, says she’s already struggling to keep up with the rising costs of food, rent, transportation and other necessities.
However, she also sees the prospect of reduced hours and pay as a frustrating reflection of how little attitudes toward cleaning staff have changed, despite the heightened attention to building cleanliness and ventilation brought by COVID-19. Read More
(Updated at 11 a.m. on 6/27/2023) The Fairfax County School Board voted 9-1 last night (Monday) to raise member salaries to $48,000 with an additional $2,000 for the board chair, starting Jan. 1, 2024.
Aiming lower than what staff proposed, the raises are comparable to compensation for other paid school boards governing large school systems elsewhere in the country and raises approved in previous years, Mount Vernon District School Board representative Karen Corbett-Sanders said.
At-large member Abrar Omeish opposed the motion, saying that she struggled to support it “from a moral perspective” when “education in general is hurting.” Hunter Mill District representative Melanie Meren and Sully District representative Stella Pekarsky abstained.
The raises will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. All school board seats will be up for election on Nov. 7.
FCPS staff recommended raising the annual pay for each of the 12 elected school board members to $60,404. An additional $2,000 increase is proposed for the board chair, a position that changes each year.
Prior to the board meeting, School Board Chair Rachna Sizemore-Heizer told FFXnow that the staff proposal “would align future board members’ modest compensation with new starting teacher salaries,” noting that the board has raised its pay just three times in the past 35 years, most recently in 2015.
A new teacher with a bachelor’s degree and a 260-day contract will make $66,177 for fiscal year 2024, which starts July 1, according to FCPS’ salary scales.
“Increasing compensation for future school board members acknowledges the significant time commitment of the work in one of the nation’s largest and most complex school systems and opens the door to public service for Fairfax County residents with diverse backgrounds and experiences who may not be able to consider serving otherwise,” Sizemore-Heizer said.
Like the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the school board is required by state law to vote on any member pay raises, which can only be proposed before July 1 of the year of an election.
Fairfax County’s school board last approved raises by a 5-4 vote in April 2015, bumping the salary for each member up from $20,000 to the current $32,000 rate. Virginia lets school boards give their chair an additional increase of up to $2,000, so the chair receives $34,000 right now.
In a summary, FCPS staff highlighted the school board’s various duties as it oversees the largest public school district in Virginia:
School Board members are responsible for developing and setting school division policy, approving the annual budget, hiring the Superintendent, and adjudicating student disciplinary and school division employee appeals. They spend many hours preparing for and attending official meetings, work sessions, committee meetings, public hearings, and other functions – nearly 150 meetings in the 2022-23 school year alone. Additionally, Board members attend school, PTA, and community meetings and events, visit schools, attend required professional development programs, and communicate with students, parents, staff, stakeholders, and other constituents.
The Board of Supervisors approved salaries on March 21 of $123,283 for supervisors and $138,283 for the chairman — slightly lower rates than what county staff had initially proposed. It was the board’s first raise since 2015.
While that vote was preceded by a public hearing with sometimes emotional testimony by residents and county workers, the school board’s vote took place around 1 p.m. without public comment. The Code of Virginia doesn’t appear to require a hearing, only a vote by the school board.
Notably, only three school board members are seeking reelection this year: Karl Frisch (Providence District), Melanie Meren (Hunter Mill) and Mason District representative Ricardy Anderson (Mason).
Sizemore-Heizer, an at-large member, is campaigning for the Braddock District seat after Megan McLaughlin announced in February that she’ll retire when her third and final term ends on Dec. 31.
At-large member Abrar Omeish, Karen Corbett Sanders (Mount Vernon), Tamara Derenak Kaufax (Franconia) and Elaine Tholen (Dranesville) have also opted out of reelection bids.
The other members — Karen Keys-Gamarra (at-large), Laura Jane Cohen (Springfield) and Stella Pekarsky (Sully) — are running for General Assembly seats. All of them won the Democratic primary for their respective races last Tuesday (June 20).
With over $110 million in unallocated funds to work with, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors moved yesterday (Tuesday) to address employee compensation, tax relief and other priorities.
As approved by the board 9-1, nearly all of that available money will go toward reducing the real estate tax rate by 1.5 cents and fully funding salary market rate adjustments for county employees — items totaling $47 million and $54.9 million, respectively.
Other revisions to the county’s advertised budget for fiscal year 2024 include support for bamboo removal on park land, additional staffing for the 24-hour domestic violence hotline, and the creation of a self-help legal center in the Fairfax County Courthouse.
“The adjustments I’ve outlined here show a true balance between tax relief, investing in county employees, standing up and fighting for our school system, and also making sure that the core services that have made this county…are supported in this budget,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said when introducing the mark-up package.
The budget proposal that County Executive Bryan Hill presented in February kept the county’s real estate tax rate flat at $1.11 per $100 of assessed value, but with the average residential bill calculated to increase by about $520, board members indicated that they would look for ways to cut the rate.
With yesterday’s vote, the board agreed to adopt a rate of $1.095 per $100 of value, which will lower the average increase to $412.
Herrity proposes cuts to schools budget
Several supervisors expressed disappointment at not being able to make a bigger cut. Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross stated she had hoped for a 3-cent reduction, and Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity proposed an “alternative” budget that he said would take five cents off.
The reduction would’ve been achieved by cutting $100 million from the county’s funding for Fairfax County Public Schools and putting $31 million for affordable housing on hold, among other cuts, according to a plan Herrity shared at a pre-mark-up session on Friday (April 28).
After FCPS told the board in a memo that Herrity’s proposal would “most definitely” prevent the school system from fully covering worker salary increases, he revised the proposal yesterday to suggest cutting $31 million from schools, taking one additional cent off the tax rate.
“I’m all for giving schools all the resources they need to address the challenges of the pandemic and challenges of our kids, but the spending needs to be done in a responsible way,” Herrity said.
Other supervisors blasted Herrity’s proposal as “budgeting by ambush” and “completely out-of-touch.” McKay noted that any reduction in salary increases for teachers would mean losing state money contingent on average raises of at least 2.5% for instructional positions in FY 2024, which begins July 1.
“The Herrity budget proposal doesn’t cut waste,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said. “I think you were trying to find waste. Instead of waste, you found teacher salaries and textbooks. It’s not cutting fat from the FCPS budget, it’s cutting into the bone.”
Support for FCPS constitutes 52% of Hill’s proposed $5.1 billion budget, which includes a $144 million increase for the school system compared to last year. Read More
Another round of compensation increases could be on the horizon for some Town of Herndon bodies.
The Herndon Town Council is considering a proposal to increase the compensation for members on the Architectural Review Board (ARB), Historic District Review Board (HDRB), Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, resulting in an annual increase of $20,400 overall.
The increases would go into effect in July, if approved. It’s in the early phases of the town’s review process and, at an April 18 work session, was placed on the council’s consent agenda for future consideration.
Councilmember Cesar del Aguila said the compensation increase might increase the diversity of candidates who apply, though he noted that it was possible that presumption could be “completely wrong on the statistical side.”
“There are segments of our community where $35 is a lot of money,” del Aguila said. “The thinking was if you invest a little bit, you might reach a broader segment of residents.”
Councilmember Donielle Scherff also said it could boost the “diversity of opportunity” for applicants.
Mayor Sheila Olem, however, noted that some people may not simply seek specific positions due to life circumstances. Prior to her role as mayor, she served on the town’s appeals board because meetings were on a monthly basis and did not interfere with her family commitments, she said.
For ARB and HDRB members, compensation would increase from $100 to $250 per month, $175 to 250 per month for PC members and $50 to $75 per month for Board of Zoning Appeals members.
Last year, the council instituted its first pay increase in 15 years.
The move — which passed as part of the budget with one dissenting vote — increased annual pay from $4,000 to $10,000 for council members and $6,000 to $12,000 for the mayor.