Salt Lake City Council to review compensation plan, drawing concern from residents

Leaders in Utah’s capital city approved a significant pay raise in time for the 2025 fiscal year that began in July, but now some residents are concerned as the Salt Lake City Council begins work on a larger and more detailed review of the city’s compensation plan.

The City Council unveiled some initial long-term options in a staff report prepared before its work session last week, although it barely discussed the measure because of time.

The document outlines several options that could be hashed out, including the possibility of increasing the mayor-to-City Council member salary ratio, "additional compensation" for members serving in council leadership roles, as well as other items like making city government a "full-time elected legislative branch" or setting up term limits.

Salt Lake City Council Chairwoman Victoria Petro told KSL.com last week that the review is still in its earliest stages, but touching on compensation appeared to strike a nerve with some residents who attended the council's formal meeting on Aug. 27.

"You just received a 26% raise and some of you want more. It seems ungrateful and greedy," said resident Keiko Jones.

Salt Lake City's raises

Salt Lake City went forward with large pay raises for the mayor and City Council that drew some criticism when the 2025 budget was going through final revisions in May and June. Leaders approved a 26% raise for Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, upping her salary to $211,764.

Andrew Wittenberg, a spokesman for the mayor's office, explained at the time that the request was meant to take into account several factors, including not having a "market rate adjustment" in at least a decade and that the position essentially serves two roles now, mayor and city manager — the latter being a job the city doesn't have.

Members of the City Council, serving in part-time positions, also received a 26% raise. Their salaries jumped from $42,017 to $52,941. The mayor's office requested the raise to fit a ratio established in 2018 where every council member receives 25% of the mayor's salary.

"With all these other fees going up, the tax going up — it's like no, no, no, no, no, this is a bad year," added Margeret Holloway, pointing to proposed tax increases tied to bonds and utility bill increases residents are now starting to face.

An additional review

What the City Council could work on next could be about money, but it also focuses more on philosophy and structure.

Salt Lake City Council members had recommended a review of possible term limits, full-time job status and other items when the council was going through the final touches on the budget, including the pay raises. The staff report states that the council will "more fully evaluate several of the factors related to the City Council member salaries" as those discussions move forward.

These include:

• Whether compensation is "adequate" to cover the cost of "time demands" tied to the position plus associated expenses of the job. On top of that, is it a fair market value? And does 25% of the mayor's salary mean they must only do a quarter of the work the mayor does, or should that threshold be increased?
• If there are "practical aspects" of the job that create barriers from ever serving in office.
• If the council should move from a part-time citizen legislative body to a full-time body.
• Should term limits be introduced to eliminate the possibility of creating "career politicians" over "citizen legislators."

The report also tosses in some data for consideration. For instance, the city estimates that the average council member spends about 27 hours per week working on city business — though sometimes this can jump up to 35 hours. It generally depends on the policy issues and other factors.

One of those factors is the growing number of community councils and similar organizations as the city grows. There are now 27 community organizations registered with the city, more than triple the number when the current government structure was established in 1980. Each organization can pull in a council member for a certain number of hours per month.

It's unclear if or when any compensation changes will be made.

Petro said the options, including items tied to money, are options that the City Council could consider but the city isn't anywhere close to finalizing any compensation changes. What was introduced last week is just the beginning of a "much longer discussion" to be had on the topic.

There is no tentative project timeline for those discussions to play out.