In an unusual move for an election year, the Mobile City Council unanimously voted to raise the salary of the next mayor to $195,000, $70,000 above the current annual salary of $125,000.
The raise will not go into effect until the next mayor takes office in November.
It was also an unusual move because the nation is enraptured in a movement to cut government spending at the federal level. Cutting spending is a major issue for President Donald Trump and his newly created “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. The head of DOGE, Elon Musk, is working overtime to cut government costs.
All seven Mobile council seats are up for election in the August 26 municipal election. The vote for the large mayoral pay raise could become an issue in the campaigns.
Incumbent Mayor Sandy Stimpson will not receive the raise. That benefit will go to the next mayor, elected in the August 26 city elections.
Stimpson made this statement about the council’s approval of the pay raise:
I want to start this evening by thanking the Mobile City Council for unanimously approving a much-needed salary adjustment for the mayor earlier today. Since Mobile’s mayor-council form of government was established in 1985, there have been only two pay increases for the mayor. By raising the salary to $195,000, the City Council has accounted for 40 years of inflation.
Some cities employ a city manager to run day-to-day operations, and in many cases, they are paid much more than the mayor. In Mobile, however, the mayor acts as the Chief Executive Officer of the city government — managing more than 2,200 employees, overseeing $1 billion in assets, and administering an annual budget of nearly $400 million. Simply put, the mayor of Mobile is responsible for everything the city does, from public safety and garbage collection to payroll and parks. The pay adjustment approved today won’t take effect until the next mayor is sworn in, but I believe this was a necessary change that will benefit Mobile in the future.
It is rarely popular for elected officials to seek a pay raise. I know that, and the members of the City Council know that. It would have been very easy to kick the can down the road and vote down this proposal, especially in an election year. However, this council understands why this change was important and why it will put the city in the best position moving forward. For their support, I am grateful.
Although it would not affect Stimpson, he requested that the council approve the raise. He made the request at January’s “State of the City and County” event.
The vote will give Mobile the highest-paid mayor in Alabama. Stimpson told reporters that some municipalities have city managers who perform similar administrative duties as the mayor, and most of those positions pay more than $200,000 a year.
“The mayor’s position has only had two raises in 40 years,” Stimpson said.
Councilwoman Gina Gregory said the preferable way to raise pay for elected officials is incremental increases, as is done for city employees.
“However, we haven’t done that through the years, so we find ourselves playing catch-up,” Gregory said. “So, really, the question is not whether the salary needs to increase. It’s by how much.”
Councilman William Carroll ultimately joined the unanimous vote in favor of the increase, but he had suggested that a smaller raise might be more appropriate. He said that he had received more than 300 email and text responses to his request for public input on the pay raise issue.
“The majority overwhelmingly was ‘no,’” he said. “They disagreed with the huge increase in the mayor’s salary.”
Caroll said some people indicated a more modest pay increase would be acceptable.
Other council members said the mayoral pay has not kept pace with the cost of living.
Councilman Cory Penn noted that 35 city employees currently make more money than the mayor. He said it is vital that the city post with the most responsibility offer sufficient compensation to attract well-paid leaders in other fields.
“They (the mayors) are the CEO of a company,” he said.
Councilman Josh Woods said increasing the pay puts the city more in line with the expectations of the job.
The mayor of the state’s largest city, Huntsville, makes $152,750 annually. The mayor of Birmingham makes $108,000 a year plus a $22,000 a year expense allowance for a total of $130,000 a year.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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