Trotwood takes step to raise pay for mayor, council

Trotwood City Council voted 4-3 on Monday to move ahead a plan to raise the pay of the mayor and council members and eliminate an extra payment plan for the mayor that is under review by the Ohio Ethics Commission.

The vote was the first on the issue; a final vote is scheduled for Nov. 4, the day before Election Day. While Monday’s 4-vote majority moves the issue ahead, it requires a 5-vote supermajority next month to pass.

The move would eliminate a $50 per diem that allows Mayor Mary McDonald to make up to $500 extra each month. The Ohio Ethics Commission is reviewing Trotwood’s pay policy and “the per diem is the focus of the review,” according to Trotwood Compensation Board minutes.

VOTERS GUIDE: Compare the candidates for Trotwood mayor

The raise if approved would bring the mayor’s pay next year to $20,000, one of the highest in the region. The mayor is currently paid $12,000, plus the $50 per diem capped at $500 a month. The council member pay would be raised to $7,500 under the proposal, up from the current $6,000. Council members are not eligible for the per diem.

In 2017, Trotwood voters approved a charter change to establish a five-member Compensation Board made up of city residents.

In 2018, the Trotwood City Council adopted the board’s recommended pay hikes: $12,000 for the mayor, up from $9,600, and $6,000 for council members, up from $4,800. Additionally, the Compensation Board recommended a $50 per diem for the mayor, capped at $500 a month, that allows her to collect $50 each day she attends meetings or makes public appearances on behalf of the city.

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A number of Trotwood residents are upset about the pay raises and the per diem and have submitted public records requests to the city. Mayor McDonald said her pay structure, which was set by an independent board of residents, was created to incentivize a mayor to be out in the community. McDonald said she sometimes goes to the per diem monthly maximum of 10 meetings in just a week.

She says people making her pay and issue are politically motivated.

Norman Scearce, who chairs the compensation board, said the board wanted to be innovative when setting a salary. He said when the pay is low, it limits who can be a city’s mayor to a person who can afford the job, such as those who are retired or with their own business.

“You can’t have a family of four or a family of five, be young, and have $9,000 a year. I mean, that’s ridiculous,” Scearce said.

When the board previously had set the per diem pay, Scearce said the board wanted to make sure that future mayors were properly incentivized to be out in the community and not just at board meetings.

In the June 2019 per diem report submitted by Mayor McDonald, following the Memorial Day tornadoes, she billed the city for tornado-related public appearances, including a briefing with Gov. Mike DeWine, press conferences and a victims community dinner.

The 2018 and 2019 city records also show the mayor billed the city for per diem pay for visiting a council member in the hospital, attending high school sporting events, attending funerals, going to a movie screening, officiating weddings and holding meetings.

Ohio Ethics Commission review

At its Sept. 10, 2019 meeting, Trotwood Law Director Stephen McHugh told the Compensation Board that the Ohio Ethics Commission is reviewing ethics concerns in the city, including the per diem, according to the board minutes. At its Sept. 18, 2019 meeting, the board voted to recommend eliminating the per diem but increasing the mayor’s salary to $20,000 and council pay to $7,500.

Ohio Ethics Commission Director Paul Nick said he “can’t comment on any specific investigation.”

An Ohio Ethics Commission advisory opinion from 1996 states that elected officials cannot raise their own pay — they may only increase pay for future officeholders.

Candidates split on pay increases

“Trotwood is a wonderful city but we’re struggling right now. I don’t think we really deserve any type of increase in pay, with what we’re going through right now,” said Council member Yvette Page, who is running against McDonald for mayor this November.

Page, who represents Ward 2, voted Monday against the pay raise. Councilmembers Rhonda Finley and Robert Kelley, Jr., also voted against the measure. Both of them are on the ballot for re-election in November. Voting for the measure were McDonald, Vice Mayor Bettye Gales and Councilmembers Tyna Brown and Ronald Vaughn.

“If I were our mayor that will all go away as far as I’m concerned, that per diem and all that stuff. Because I’m already getting the salary to do the job that I’m doing,” Page said. “I feel like it’s double dipping.”

Mayor defends pay

The per diem reports are a reflection of her schedule, according to McDonald, who said she keeps a list of everything she does outside of the office, shares it on a calendar and that information is what is on the per diem forms. She gets paid for 10 of the events a month, though the list of events is often longer.

“The clerk prepares a document. I told her to put everything on there that I do besides the hours I spend in the office,” McDonald said.

McDonald, who has voted Democratic in recent primaries, said the political attacks are spurred by those who support the other mayoral candidate, who is endorsed by the Democratic Party and party leaders such as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. McDonald said she has been vilified because of the times she reached across party aisles to work with Republicans.

The attacks in the lead up to the election are creating division and threatening to take the city in the wrong direction, she said.

“I’ve been here for 14 years and this is the first four years that we have started to grow as a city. It is now being destroyed because of power,” McDonald said. “There’s no reason for this.”

Some Trotwood residents, including a former city councilmen, are criticizing pay hikes and per diem pay and have submitted public records requests for city documents.

Former Trotwood councilman James D. Williams, who lost his election in 2017, shared the documents he received from the city in response to a public records request.

VOTERS GUIDE: Compare the candidates for Trotwood council

Paul Nick, who has been with the state ethics commission since 1995, and Ohio Municipal League Director Kent Scarrett, who has been an OML employee since 1997, said neither of them are aware of per diem pay at Ohio cities, other than Trotwood.

Miami Valley area cities around Trotwood’s size — 24,000 residents — pay their mayors between a low of $4,773 in Xenia to a high of $23,580 in Troy, according to the Ohio Municipal League 2019 City Salary Survey. Likewise, city council pay ranges from $4,000 in Riverside to $12,927 in Springboro, according to the survey.

The survey does not track additional compensation, such as per diem payments and benefits. The city of Centerville, which has a little more than 24,000 residents, reported the mayor makes an annual salary of $16,176 and city council members make $14,926.

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Pay for area mayors, council members

City: Mayor Pay/ Council Pay

Dayton: 50,558/ 41,600

Troy: 23,580/ 8,382

Trotwood: 20,000/ 7,500 * proposed

Celina: 15,999/ 4,500

Springfield: 14,688/ 11,019

Miamisburg: 14,515/ 10,640

Springboro: 13,573/ 12,927

Urbana: 13,000/ 7,200

Kettering: 12,000/ 8,000