With Mayor Mary Fasbender breaking a Hastings City Council tie vote, an increase in the stipend elected officials make will take place in January 2023.

In a first reading of a proposed ordinance increase the pay of the mayor and city council in September, language was included that pushed off the stipend increase until January 2025, under the rationale that the elected officials weren’t raising their own pay.

However, Councilmember Tina Folch introduced the amendment to change the date, since it has already been seven years since elected official pay has been increased.

Under the newly passed ordinance, mayor compensation will be $10,200, up from the current stipend of $9,400 annually. The council stipend will increase $500 to $7,700. The change will take effect Jan. 3, 2023.

As part of the city’s salary and compensation study that was conducted this year, council pay was compared to nearby and similarsized municipalities.

“That report that came back this summer indicated about an $800 increase in mayor and $500 increase in the city council member wages to be in line with comparable to neighboring cities of similar size,” City Administrator Dan Wietecha said. “At our council meeting two weeks ago, council had a lot of discussion on much of the proposed ordinance. One of the key pieces that came out of that council discussion on the first reading was an effective date of two years from now, so January 2025. I know that at least a couple of councilmembers in the intervening weeks have inquired about changing that date, shortening up. That’s certainly before you this evening.”

Folch said it’s unreasonable for people to dedicate so much time to the job and have it be such a long period of time for pay to be looked at.

“That would make it nine years before there was an adjustment in the council wages, and it’s only a $500 increase, which isn’t much,” she said. “I think that sometimes leadership takes courage to make tougher decisions, and I’m not afraid of taking a vote on something that I think is fair.”

Councilmember Lisa Leifeld said officials make big sacrifices to be on the council, and they could be costly as well.

“We’ve talked about these dates a lot, and the reality is in January 2025, there could reasonably still be four of us here, including the mayor. The only two we know who won’t be here unless they decide to come back in 2025 are councilmember Vaughn and councilmember Braucks,” she said.

Neither Vaughan nor Braucks are seeking reelection this year.

“None of ran for the money, but that being said, $500 can be a lot to someone, and I think it may make it easier for someone to want to run. There are a lot of costs involved. There’s daycare for meetings for a lot of people. There’s a lot of cost to doing this job, taking time off of work to go to events and whatever it may be. We do need to think about the fact that even though you don’t do it for the money, I think you might open the door to other people that are looking at it going, ‘Oh god, no, I’m not doing this. I know how many phone calls they take I know how many emails they take. I know how many meetings there are.’ It might broaden that for us. I support Councilmember Folch’s idea that hopefully we can broaden the pool. We want people to participate. This might just help that,” said Leifeld.

Councilmember Trevor Lund made the argument in the September meeting to push back the effective date, and he stood by it.

“I don’t think it’s leadership, taking an act of courage, per se, but it’s doing what’s appropriate. I think it’s more appropriate to make a chance like this when it’s not directly affecting you for sure,” he said.

Vaughn said the wage study showed that council pay was “right there in the ballpark.”

“We actually raised it up a little bit. That’s why I can support this in 2025. We’re probably going to be right in there, probably a little on the low end, but I hope we’re doing another study by that time to make sure our staff is getting taken care. I can’t support moving the date.”

In the end, the council voted 33, with Folch, Leifeld and Jen Fox voting in favor of the 2023 date, and Lund, Vaughan and Braucks against. Fasbender voted in favor to break the deadlock.