WAUPUN — The Waupun City Council voted to increase the annual salary for the Mayor of Waupun from $10,000 to $12,000 to better compensate for the duties of the position.
Currently, the mayoral salary is only $10,000 a year, and alderman salary only $6,000 a year, figures which haven’t changed since 2013—ten years ago.
The Council made the decision to increase the mayor’s salary at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, following a discussion session at the previous meeting on July 25th.
The general consensus from the July meeting was that both mayor and alderman salaries deserved to match inflation since the last increase. They also discussed adding a little bit more on top to match projected inflation over the next several years which would allow the matter to be settled for a longer period.
Originally, Mayor Bishop proposed an increase for the mayoral salary to $12,000, along with a smaller boost to the alderman positions. The Council threw out other numbers as well, including increasing the mayor’s salary to as high as $20,000, due to the position being effectively a half-time job on 24/7 call.
Mayor Bishop explained that an increased salary would allow Council positions to be more viable for working members of the community. A common issue in municipal governments is that elected positions end up almost entirely retirees due to the massive time commitment they take, something that working-age residents can’t commit without massive lifestyle changes.
The July meeting discussion ended with a general consensus to increase salaries according to inflation. This would have put the mayoral salary to $15,000 and the alderman salaries to approximately $9,000.
When the Council met Tuesday afternoon with this in mind, they decided to change course and keep the salaries lower, with a small boost to the mayoral position due to the higher time commitment over the alderman position.
Alderman Westphal began by saying that a minimum increase of the mayoral salary to $12,000 was fair, which was echoed by Alderman Pete Kaczmarski.
“If anyone would be against that, remind them that our Festival Committee chairman makes $12,000 a year,” Kaczmarski said. “I think that’s disrespectful to the position of mayor—whoever would be in that chair—to be earning less than that.”
Alderman Kaczmarski was on the City Council in 2013 when the Council voted on the increase to $6,000 and $10,000, saying that any increases must be made with the hope that anyone elected will be mindful of the position and work hard to deserve it.
Next to speak was Alderwoman Bobbi Jo Kunz who stated that the mayor position deserves more than just $12,000, and that she would support an increase to $15,000. This sentiment was echoed by Aldermen Mike Matoshek and William Langford.
Alderman Dan Siebers then suggested that the Council table the discussion for a future meeting under closed session to discuss the duties of the mayor position and whether it has a job description.
Mayor Bishop pointed out that this was a poor idea due to the optics that they could be trying to hide something, and City Attorney Dan VandeZande shot down the idea entirely stating that it was illegal under current statutes.
They also explained that the position doesn’t have an explicit job description, and that due to the elected nature of the position it is based entirely on how the mayor wants to run the administration. Many responsibilities of the position are outlined in city statutes, but not necessarily required as would a normal job.
This allows for mayors to be as active in day-to-day bureaucracy as they want, or to be entirely hands off and only serve as chair for Council meetings.
Mayor Bishop pointed out that the most recent mayors, at least since Bob Reinap, were all relatively active mayors who were out in the community and worked heavily with city staff. While it isn’t impossible for a lame-duck to be elected mayor, very few are willing to run for the position unless they have a vision for how they would use the position for the community, and none have been in recent memory.
“I know Julie retired from work to do more in this role and paid a financial price for it, and I can tell you from how my wife reminds me about what I make, we’re paying one too,” Mayor Bishop said. “It’s something you do because you want to do the job because you really care about Waupun.”
“And I’ve been advocating that the mayor should get a boost for way before I became mayor,” Bishop added.
It is undisputed in the community how much Mayor Bishop cares about the City of Waupun and how much he does for the community as the mayor. But it’s only possible because Mayor Bishop adapted his schedule to fit the mayor position, something that many potential candidates would be unwilling or unable to do.
“The thing to remember about the mayor—whoever it is—is when stuff comes up, a lot of it you have to work on in the daytime. I literally had to switch jobs and change my schedule to be able to do this,” Mayor Bishop said.
One of the issues with proposing raises is the reflexive reaction of some members of the community toward any suggestion of it, despite the case the Council makes for it.
“It doesn’t have to be controversial every time this comes up, maybe they should just set it so you get a 1% increase every two years, it doesn’t matter who’s sitting here,” Mayor Bishop said. “Because the law is right, we can’t vote ourselves a pay raise, so everyone would have to get reelected, and that’s the way it should be. But it’s the stupidest thing, we’ll give raises of 4% across the board and no one is going to care, but five people on Facebook might get worked up if the mayor is going from ten to fifteen for the first time in twelve years.”
Alderman Kaczmarski then made the motion to increase the salary for the mayor’s position to $1,000 a month, or $12,000 annually. The Council held a roll call vote with no further discussion, 6-0 in favor. The alderman salary remained at $6,000.
Salary changes for elected positions go into effect after the election following the decision. The next mayoral election will be this upcoming April as the office gets elected every 2 years. Alderman positions are also elected for two years with half being elected in alternating cycles.
Any future changes to the salaries of mayor and aldermen would need to be approved by the City Council.
