ST. LOUIS — When the St. Louis Board of Aldermen is cut in half to 14 from 28 members next April, those elected from the new larger wards could potentially see their salaries double under a proposal that has circulated at City Hall.
The proposal, submitted in January by an aldermanic subcommittee, called for doubling the pay for aldermen to $74,800 from the current $37,400.
The move, the subcommittee said in its report, “is consistent with halving the number of alderpersons and doubling the number of constituents.”
Moreover, the report said, the resulting salary would be within the range of pay for governing bodies of peer cities studied by the panel.
The issue came up Wednesday when Tom Shepard, chief of staff to Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, said at a budget hearing that there would be enough money in the board’s proposed budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year to accommodate that much of an increase if that’s what’s decided upon.
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“There’s the anticipation that the salary ... will be roughly twice as much,” Shepard said.
Such a large jump in pay drew sharp criticism from Alderman Joe Vaccaro, a member of the Ways and Means Committee that held the hearing.
“It just seems a little bit out there ... to double the salaries, have a staff and it still be a part-time job,” said Vaccaro, of the 23rd Ward. “We’ll be making more than policemen and firemen and paramedics at that point.”
The plan also calls for hiring an assistant for each alderman to help them carry out an expected jump in constituent service demands in the larger wards they’ll be serving.
Vaccaro also questioned jacking up aldermanic pay by that much an amount at a time when the city is having difficulty hiring and retaining enough employees to pick up trash and fill various other jobs.
“One of the bigger complaints I get is we cannot hire anybody because we don’t pay a competitive salary,” he said.
Shepard and Reed emphasized that no decision on any pay raise for aldermen had been made and that aldermanic salaries would be included in a bill separate from the overall city budget.
Shepard noted that there will still be 28 wards and the current aldermanic pay for most of the fiscal year, which runs from July to July.
The aldermanic subcommittee recommending the increase included Marlene Davis, 19th Ward, and two aldermen who have since resigned from the board, Heather Navarro of the 28th Ward and Sarah Wood Martin of the 11th Ward. Davis also chairs the Ways and Means Committee.
The subcommittee said in addition to an expected increase in calls from citizens about city services, aldermen from the new larger wards will likely need to attend more neighborhood meetings.
The panel also said aldermen would be expected to serve on additional aldermanic committees unless the number of committees is trimmed.
Ward reduction was required by a city charter amendment approved by voters in 2012 that kicked in with last year’s redistricting following the 2020 federal census.
The panel also called for a doubling of aldermen’s current expense account of $4,200 per year to $8,400.
A survey conducted by the subcommittee last fall showed salaries for members of peer cities’ governing bodies ranging from $48,790 in Louisville, Kentucky, to $93,504 in New Orleans. Among the cities listed was Kansas City, where city council members earned $75,000 at the time.
Posted at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 18.