West Linn City Council to ask voters for a pay raise

West Linn voters will decide in November whether to grant annual raises of $23,600 for the city's mayor and $11,000 for councilors. The West Linn City Council voted 4-0 (Council President Mary Baumgardner was absent) in favor of referring a charter amendment to voters this November that would spell out changes in council compensation.

Currently the city charter states that the city cannot pay the mayor more than $6,400 annually and councilors can’t receive more than $4,000 annually. The charter amendment would increase the mayor’s pay to $30,000 annually and councilors’ to $15,000. Because the charter allows for cost of living adjustments, the mayor and councilors have actually received more than these figures for the past several years, with the mayor earning $9,445 in fiscal year 2024 and councilors earning $5,910.

Mayor Rory Bialostosky noted that the council had previously asked the citizen budget committee to examine pay rates for city councilors in nearby cities.

“I’ve heard from community members in the past that they’ve thought about running for office but couldn’t do so because the pay was too low and they couldn’t take time away from work,” Bialostosky said.

The city’s budget committee recommended the charter amendment details. Bialostosky noted that, although councilors are also members of the budget committee, they did not participate in the budget committee’s discussion to avoid a conflict of interest.

“They came to that decision on their own,” Bialostosky emphasized.

Ashley Wigod of the city attorney’s office reminded council that they cannot financially benefit from their official positions. According to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, referring the raise to voters avoids the conflict of interest that would occur if council decided to grant its own raise.

If passed, the new pay scale would take effect Jan. 1, 2025. It’s possible the council will have exactly the same make up in 2025 with Bialostosky, Baumgardner and Councilor Carol Bryck each currently running unopposed for reelection and Councilors Leo Groner and Kevin Bonnington not up for re-election until 2026.

According to the budget committee’s findings, the new pay scale would put West Linn’s mayor and councilor compensation in line with that of Wilsonville, where the mayor earns $30,000 annually, councilors make $11,000 and the council president makes $15,000.

In Lake Oswego, the mayor earns $6,000 and councilors $2,700 while mayors and councilors in Gladstone, Oregon City and Milwuakie are unpaid, according to the budget committee’s research.