Rossford council pay on ballot

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ROSSFORD – Rossford voters will be asked to
give pay increases to members of City Council and the mayor by approving amendments to the city charter.One
amendment would hike pay for members of council to $8,400 annually up from $3,000, and for council president
to $9,000 annually, up from $3,300. The other would increase the pay for mayor to $18,000, up from
$7,500.The pay hikes were first approved by council in January, but later rescinded. The move to increase
the pay was prompted by a change in the state retirement system that raised the amount officials needed to
be paid in order to be eligible for a state retirement system pension.Council pay has not been raised in 20
years.Also, a survey showed that Rossford’s mayor and council members were, with one exception, the
lowest-paid in the area.Council could have just approved the raises, but then only newly elected officials
would receive the increases. The charter amendment would mean all council members receive the same pay.At
the time council voted to put the amendments on the ballot, Mayor Neil MacKinnon III said he favored council
pay increases but did not want his pay increased.Council President Larry Oberdorf insisted it be included,
saying the issue was not about a particular person, rather about the position.Whether council’s pay should
be hiked came up as the first question at Tuesday’s "meet the candidates" night for city
council.Candidate Robert Densic, who spoke against the raises when they were proposed, said he was asking
citizens to vote "no.""This job is about service," he said. "This is about giving
back to the community."He said the reason the state change raised the threshold to get a pension from
the Public Employees Retirement System, is that the system is in trouble.PERS, he said, was meant for
full-time public employees not city officials who work "10, 15, 20 hours a month."Caroline Eckel,
an incumbent seeking re-election, said the raises were a long time in coming. "That’s why it looks like
such a huge amount."She said bringing the issue to the voters was the right approach. Voting
"yes" would be "a vote of confidence" meaning "we are doing an OK job, and we
deserve it."She added that new pay "is still not reflective of the time we put in."Later in
the forum, when the three incumbents were asked how much time their positions on council involved, Chuck
Duricek estimated 10 to 15 hours a week. He said he was probably the easiest to find member of council
because for 12 hours a day, he’s at his car and boat repair business in downtown.Jerry Staczek said he may
spend up to 20 hours a week."I’m not in it for the money," he said. He confessed he wasn’t even
aware it was a paid position when he first ran unopposed to fill an unexpired term seat two years ago. He
said regardless of the outcome of the charter amendment vote, he’ll get up the day after the election
"to do his job."Eckel said "it was impossible to quantify the number of hours spent on city
council" because whenever she’s out in public people approach her about city business. Anyone who
thinks they can quantify the time spent probably doesn’t understand the nature of the position.Duricek said
that council should have approved the pay raises in the process spelled out in the charter.Candidate Dennis
Foy said he was in favor of the hike because pay hasn’t been increased for so long.Daniel Walker said
council was right to leave it up to the citizens to decide.

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