Portage City Council members will have to try again to pay themselves for work they say they do on behalf of the city’s Utility Services Board following Mayor James Snyder’s salary increase veto.
Snyder vetoed a salary ordinance the council passed this month giving each of the seven council members $5,000 for work they do with the utility. In February, the council voted to take over the utility services board and promised they would not take any extra compensation.
Passing a salary ordinance paying themselves violates that promise, Snyder said.
“That’s why I vetoed (the ordinance),” he said. “(The council) knew full well they were going to have extra work to do.”
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Since then, council members, in their capacity as utility service board members, have put in hours of work each week and they should be compensated, said Council President Mark Oprisko, D-at large.
“The salary is for the extra work on the utility services board,” Oprisko said, noting some board members spend 15 hours to 20 hours a week working with utility employees. “It’s been a hectic ride, but we’ve got things riding very smoothly.”
Until February, the mayor named residents to the utilities services board, with each board member earning about $2,700 a year. The City Council then took over the board, only to discover there was more work to be done than expected, Oprisko said.
That was not good enough for John Cannon, R-4th, the sole Republican on the City Council and utilities board.
When the salary ordinance came up in a City Council meeting this year, Cannon blocked the council from suspending its rules and adopting the ordinance, expecting it would buy the council more time to consider the ordinance, Cannon said.
Instead, Oprisko called for a special meeting days later, and the council passed the ordinance.
“A $5,000 a year raise for the council is nonsense,” Cannon said. “If you cut out the micromanaging by council members at the utility, you won’t need a raise.”
Cannon said he will donate his salary to a charity.
The dispute between the mayor and the council came after a busy week at City Hall. Last week, Oprisko used a new take-home car policy to strip the mayor of a Chevy Tahoe costing the city about $866 per month.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.