Patterson mayor’s pay doubled

The mayor’s salary and benefits slightly more than doubled Tuesday night over the previous salary with the City Council’s approval, the first time an increase to the mayor’s salary has occurred in 35 years, according to city officials.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, the council passed an ordinance to increase the mayor’s annual salary to $35,400 with an annual car allowance of $6,000 and annual phone allowance of $600 for a total of $42,000. The council amended the ordinance to make the pay raise go into effect immediately.
The previous salary was $20,000 annually without any benefits. When the ordinance was introduced in December 2014, Councilman Joe Russo referenced that the Berwick mayor makes $36,000 a year.
During the public hearing for the ordinance, several members of the audience spoke. Patterson resident Leslie Burke said she did not see how the mayor could ask for a raise when the city has roads that need to be fixed.
Preston Gill, a Bayou Vista resident and former Daily Review reporter, said many city charters prohibit the mayor’s salary and benefits from increasing during a term, but “for some unexplained reason, the Patterson charter was written so only the mayor’s benefits can increase during his term.”
Gill said there is nothing unfair about compensating someone for what they agreed to do a job for, but doing so during his term “smells of cronyism and politics.”
Gill also said the mayor has three outstanding state ethics commission fines. Upon checking the Louisiana Ethics Administration’s website, Grogan has three outstanding $1,000 fines listed for not filing supplemental campaign finance reports dated Oct. 2, 2010.
This morning, Grogan said he was going to call the ethics administration to find out what those fines are for and provide The Daily Review with that information.
Grogan said he already paid a $2,500 fine in 2014 for failing to file a separate campaign finance personal disclosure report. Grogan provided The Daily Review with documents showing that ethics charges were dismissed Dec. 3, 2014, due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction, for claims that he failed to file 2011 and 2012 supplemental campaign finance reports.
Councilman Joe Russo, who has served under three different mayors, said giving a pay raise to the mayor’s position can never be about a specific mayor. For the past 18 months, the council has done research on what to do with the mayor’s salary and benefits.
Eight years ago, the council received an increase in pay, but the mayor did not receive an increase in pay, Russo said.
Russo did not realize the last increase in the mayor’s salary was 35 years ago, he said. “What we proposed is all about being fair. It’s not about Rodney Grogan.”
The city eliminated the city manager’s position so the city has the money to pay the mayor more, Russo said. “Give the seat what the seat deserves,” Russo said.
Russo believes the public should always be allowed to speak, but some of the public comments might have been a “witch hunt,” he said.
Patterson resident Nia Paul said the mayor should get a raise because he has done his job and brought Patterson up from a place that was “very dark.” Though the city does have problems with the roads and other infrastructure, those issues should not be a deciding factor as to whether the mayor gets a raise.
Responding to the issues with the city’s roads, Patterson Public Works Director Steve Bierhorst said with about $6 million he could fix all the streets. “We don’t have that kind of money,” Bierhorst said.
In the spring of 2015, an item will be on the parish ballot to rededicate part of a library board millage to be used for maintenance of roads in the parish, excluding Morgan City, which already has a dedicated road royalty tax, he said.
Patterson would then be able to issue bonds to pay for road repairs, he said. “The proceeds from that millage will pay that 10-year bond for $950,000,” Bierhorst said.
Patterson City Tax Collector Angela Shilling-Boyles said, referring to the people who spoke in opposition of the pay raise, “I honestly feel in my heart that this is a situation about people that don’t like Mayor Rodney Grogan.”
Also at the meeting, Pamela Washington was reappointed as city clerk. Grogan announced that Washington will retire Jan. 31 after being employed by the city for 44 years. Therefore, another clerk will have to be reappointed in February, Grogan said.
In other business, the council:
—Approved an amendment to the budget to provide for the transfer of $361,000 from the sewerage and solid waste tax fund to the general fund. The money is to provide excess revenues in the general fund to provide evidence that the city has the ability to make sufficient and timely debt service payments on the issuance of $1 million in excess revenue bonds that are required to complete construction of a new water plant.
—Voted to appoint Russo as mayor pro-tem.
—Accepted a bid on surplus items.
—Approved renewal of TechePulse Consulting LLC contract.
—Approved a resolution to accept the mayor’s appointments of Angela Shilling-Boyles as tax collector, Russel Cremaldi as city attorney and J.P. Morella as city magistrate.