Elected officials in one Midlands city look to raise their pay for the first time in 24 years
Elected officials in one of the largest cities in Lexington County are set to increase their own salaries for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.
West Columbia City Council gave initial approval this week to a measure to give the city’s mayor, mayor pro tem and council members their first cost-of-living pay raise since their base pay was last updated in 2000.
Tem Miles, the city’s mayor, said other positions have seen their salaries adjusted for cost of living 21 times since the last time elected officials saw such an increase and said it’s important to make sure the purchasing power of their salaries isn’t diminished by inflation.
“We want to make sure that our representative government is open and serving in that capacity is a real option for folks who have families at home,” Miles said. “For folks who aren’t independently wealthy. For folks who aren’t retired. And there has to be some compensation paid to justify folks for the time that they invest into providing that service. Otherwise you end up with positions that only a few folks can fill. I don’t think that’s a particularly good scenario for representative government.”
The salary-raising measure, which passed on first reading 8-1, will require one more vote to be ratified before it would take effect in 2025.
According to the most recent compensation survey conducted by the Municipal Association of South Carolina, the minimum salary for West Columbia’s mayor is a little over $13,000 with a maximum of nearly $20,000. Council members make a minimum of about $10,500 and a maximum of just over $18,000.
A spokesperson for the city refused to confirm the salaries currently paid to elected officials, telling The State this information is only available via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The updated ordinance would raise the mayor’s salary to nearly $26,000 (or nearly $19,500 if the mayor were to opt in to coverage through the State Health Plan). The mayor pro tem would make about $23,500 (or about $17,000 with health coverage). Council members would make just over $22,000 (or nearly $16,500 with health coverage).
West Columbia is the second-largest municipality in the county, with about 17,500 people.
The town of Lexington, with a population of about 24,500, reported that it pays its mayor $12,500, its mayor pro tem $11,500 and its Town Council members $10,500. West Columbia’s neighbor Cayce, with a population of about 13,500 reported that it pays its mayor $18,500, its mayor pro tem $16,500 and its City Council members $15,000. Irmo, with a population of about 12,000, reported that it pays its mayor $9,600 and Town Council members $7,200.
West Columbia Councilman Mike Green, who cast the lone “no” vote on the pay raise, said he didn’t like the optics of council voting to give itself a raise at this time.
“It sends a bad signal for us to raise our salaries when we have a lot of people hurting out there and inflation going wild,” he said. “We’re part-time. I knew what the salary was before I signed up.”
The councilman said he’d be more open to the idea of reducing City Council’s membership from from nine to five than to allocating more to pay the current elected positions.
Of Green’s resistance, Miles said, “As he’s so often done, he lets others do the hard work and he just reaps the benefits.”
As to the optics, the mayor said he’s not concerned.
“Anytime we had to do anything with money, we hear from people talking about, ‘Oh, this isn’t the time to do it,” Miles said. “I’ve never once had any person on any dollar issue come up and go, ‘Well, I think now is the appropriate time for y’all to do the hard thing.’”
