The Common Council met 10/02/2024. One of the items they voted on was to set the aldermanic salary for the 2026-27 Council term. The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee unanimously recommended that no increase be implemented, and the Common Council voted 10 in favor, 3 against, and one abstention on that recommendation, with Alderpersons Vered Meltzer (District 2), Alex Schultz (District 9), and Nate Wolff (District 12) casting the dissenting votes, and Alderperson Martyn Smith (District 4) abstaining.
I’ve prepared the transcript of the discussion for download:
Alderperson Smith noted that in 2016 the aldermanic salary was $5,921 and, based on an online calculator, it would need to now be $7,700 to have kept up with inflation. So, in essence, the salary amount had declined. He asked, “[D]o we have a plan to keep up with inflation in any way?”
Mayor Woodford said, “[F]or purposes of this discussion and to make sure we keep things germane, we’ll just—we’ll, we’ll take your statement as rhetorical, and we’ll continue with the discussion.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland said, “At the HRIT Committee during the discussion about this item, my sentiment was, given the inflationary pressures on our taxpayers at this time, that we would not be looking for a small increase, which, given our recent history, might have occurred this year.”
There was no further discussion and the Council voted on the item with 10 voting aye, 3 voting nay, and 1 abstaining.
City Attorney Christopher Behrens noted that statutorily a change to the aldermanic salary required approval by ¾ of the Council. This vote did not meet that threshold, but, in this case, the result was the same because not meeting the threshold resulted in no increase and the recommendation had already been for there to be no increase.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1213517&GUID=81E74286-30D8-42B6-B190-79482A705CD5
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