News

By Dan Moffett

     A divided South Palm Beach Town Council has given preliminary approval to an ordinance that will raise the pay of council members and the mayor, beginning after the March election.
    The measure increases the mayor’s monthly salary from $250 to $500 and council members’ pay from $250 to $300. The change does not apply to the current council, but would be phased in next year and after the 2018 election when new members are seated.
    The ordinance passed 3-2 on Dec. 21 with Mayor Bonnie Fischer and Councilwomen Stella Gaddy Jordan and Elvadianne Culbertson approving. Vice Mayor Joe Flagello and Councilman Robert Gottlieb voted against it.
    Flagello argued that the council should have discussed the pay raise during budget workshops last summer and made it part of the budget. He said the town would have to take money out of its contingency fund to cover the expense.
    “Contingency is for unplanned things — not planned things,” Flagello said. “We didn’t budget for this and we shouldn’t do it now.”
    Flagello, Fischer and Culbertson would be eligible to receive the raises if they win reelection in March. Gottlieb and Jordan would have to wait until 2018, when their seats come up.
    “I would love to get more money, don’t get me wrong,” Flagello said. “But I don’t think this is responsible.”
    Gottlieb agreed and said the council should “show goodwill” and wait to make the change. “We all know this won’t make the town go broke,” he said. “But let it come up at the next budget workshop.”
    Jordan led the support for the raises, saying council members hadn’t had an increase in eight years, the town could easily afford the cost, and Fischer had worked overtime to expand the role of the mayor by engaging with other communities and agencies to raise the town’s profile in the area.
    “You can’t imagine how many hours she puts in and how hard she works,” Jordan said.
    Fischer said the mayor’s job required more work than the other council positions.
    “I don’t want to sound self-serving,” she said, “but some of us put in more time and effort than other people because it’s the nature of the office.”
Council members had considered raising their salaries to $400 a month, but Culbertson, in her first meeting since her appointment to the seat opened by Woody Gorbach’s death in October, sided with Flagello and Gorbach to derail that idea. She proposed limiting the raise to $300, and her vote for it was the difference.
    The ordinance is scheduled to come up for final approval at the Jan. 24 town meeting.
    In other business, Town Manager Bob Vitas said an architect’s review of Town Hall “is moving right along” and a report on options for renovating or replacing the aging structure should be ready by the spring.
    Vitas said Steven Knight, of Alexis Knight Architects in West Palm Beach, has interviewed most of the town’s officials and completed a review of the building, which is a hodgepodge of several renovations and additions from decades past.
    “The building is structurally sound,” said Vitas, but he warned that finding a way to expand parking and comply with federal disability access standards will be difficult problems to solve.