Rockford mayor to get huge salary bump

ROCKFORD - In an 8 to 4 vote Rockford city council members said they thought the mayor needed a bump in pay to make his salary comparable to neighboring cities and because they say he should be paid adequately for what he does.

The vote to increase the mayor's pay wasn't unanimous among Rockford alderman.  A disagreement echoed by people who live in Rockford.

"There are other things they should focus on in the city, said Rockford resident Megan Sandall.  "There are too many people that need jobs and we're already in debt."

But the mayor's office hasn't seen a bump in pay in 10 years, that's why some say it's about time.

"If I didn't have an increase as a private sector employee, I would be pretty upset," said Rockford resident Melissa Miller.

In May of next year, the mayor will get an increase in pay from 95-thousand dollars a year, to almost 119-thousand dollars.  The mayor will then get a 5-percent increase in 2014, and then a 2-percent increase for the remaining 2 years of the term. 

Meaning at then end of the 4 year term, the mayor would be making 135-thousand dollars a year, 40-thousand more than Mayor Larry Morrissey makes now.

"He's the mayor of the city, he has several people making more money than the mayor does, I think that's kind of wrong," said Rockford alderman Lenny Jacobson.

But some alderman felt the process to determine how much of a raise he should get wasn't right.  A committee compared salaries of nearby mayors and of cities of similar size to adjust the mayor's income.  A process alderman Carl Wasco thought was skewed and didn't think reflected how other public workers got salary increases.

"The comparables were there, but we didn't use those to set the salary," said Wasco.

City council members also discussed increasing their own salaries Monday night by 3-percent.  But ended up splitting the vote 6 to 6, meaning they didn't have enough votes to legally make the change.

"If money's important for to be here, then it's the wrong reason to be here," said Rockford alderman Patrick Curran.