A public hearing on Crown Point’s 2024 budget came and went without any citizen comment at Monday’s City Council meeting.
Now, the $48,825,385 budget proposal is set for adoption at a special meeting to be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 16 at City Hall. In a related vote, the council passed a resolution to seek an additional tax levy involving the annexation of property valued at $500,000.
With the 2024 budget comes salary increases for city employees and elected officials. Accordingly, Mayor Pete Land and all employees would receive an across-the-board 4% pay raise.
The proposed salary increases will bump Land up to $4,310.72 biweekly, or $112,078.72 per year, based on 26 pay periods. Land’s salary is paid equally from the city’s General, Water, Wastewater and Stormwater funds. Clerk-Treasurer Dave Benson’s salary is also equally allotted from those funds, and he is set to earn $100,612.72 in 2024.
City Council members are on track to earn $20,497.44, with the council president receiving an extra $100 monthly stipend. The City Judge salary would be $3,411.80 per month, or $40,941.60 annually. Councilman Chad Jeffries, D-1st, noted that while many employees are present at various city events outside their normal workday, and therefore receive overtime pay, that does not extend to department heads, as they are salaried and not hourly employees. To compensate them for their time, Jeffries suggested the council entertain the idea of cash bonuses for salaried employees who attend and help coordinate events outside of their normal working hours.
Also receiving stipends are the various appointees to city boards and commissions. Under the budget proposal, Crown Point Board of Works appointees will earn $275 per meeting. That body meets twice a month. Plan Commission members would receive $225 per meeting, and Board of Zoning Appeals and Redevelopment Commission members are tabbed for $175 per meeting.
On Monday, City Council members expressed a desire to exert more fiscal oversight on Board of Works spending, especially where is comes to contracts, change orders and legal fees. Although Council President Dawn Stokes, D-2nd, withdrew her ordinance that would give the council the right to review= and veto Board of Works expenditures of $25,000 or more, she was given assurances from city officials that those contracts and documents would be made readily available upon request.
Councilwoman Laura Sauerman, R-4th, said that during the previous mayoral administration council members were informed that they “did not have a right” to see those documents.
In other business, the council approved a favorable recommendation from the Board of Zoning Appeals to locate a cemetery at Sts. Peter & Paul Macedonian Orthodox Church, 9660 Broadway.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
