Wasilla tweaks mayor pay ordinance

WASILLA — As mayoral candidates begin to line up to lead Wasilla for the next three years, Wasilla City Council has streamlined the compensation plan for the city’s top administrator.

After a short discussion last week, the council voted unanimously on an ordinance that puts the mayor’s salary on par with other city department heads. The vote also cleared up some language that allows a second-term mayor to continue to earn a standard 2.5 percent pay raise each year.

That means should Mayor Verne Rupright win his re-election bid in October, he’ll move up in the city’s pay scale commensurate with a four-year employee. Until approving the change last week, the ordinance read a newly elected mayor is paid as a Level A employee, which is the lowest tier of compensation.

“When the council put all that together, they said we ought to put the mayor back in the same step as all the employees, like it used to be,” Rupright said of the change. “When (Dianne) Keller was mayor, there was a lot of firestorm around it and (the council) froze the mayor’s salary. It’s now put on the same range as the rest of the directors and it moves forward like everyone else.”

What that means is the city’s next mayor will start at an annual salary of $88,977. For Rupright, re-election would bump him into Level D at $95,998. Because the office is term-limited to a pair of two-year terms, the most any mayor could make under the city’s current non-union salary pay rate is $100,984 (adjusted annually for a 1 percent cost of living allowance).

Last week’s vote was more of a cleaning house move, Rupright said.

“It’s a real simple thing,” he said. “It’s not a sweetheart deal. It’s a matter of clearing that up. All the managers step forward anyway for their number of years of service, and so does the mayor. The issue was just cleaning up that language.”

Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff is one of two on the council who have announced they’ll challenge Rupright — Taffina Katkus is the other. Although she thinks the mayor is already paid too much, she agrees last week’s fix to the ordinance’s language is fair.

“When we kicked it around last time the intent was to not make the mayor’s salary a political football every election year,” Woodruff said. “All we wanted to do was take it out from being a political football and put it on a matrix and salary range that’s similar to our regular employees.”

Along with outlining the compensation for an incumbent to continue on the pay scale, the reworked ordinance also takes out a provision that requires the council to approve the mayor’s pay 90 days before an election.

“I think this is better for all concerned this way,” Woodruff said.

Field of 5?

When the city’s candidate filing deadline closes at 5 p.m. July 29, there could be as many as five on the Wasilla ballot for mayor. As of Thursday afternoon, only Rupright and Michael A. Carson have filed paperwork with the city, the Wasilla City Clerk’s Office reports.

According to filings with the Alaska Public Officials Commission, however, more may do so by the July 29 deadline. APOC records show:

• Councilwoman Katkus has filed a letter of intent to run for mayor and a candidate registration.

• Both Rupright and Woodruff have filed letters of intent.

• Carson, who unsuccessfully ran for city council last October, hasn’t filed any APOC paperwork relating to this year’s election.

• Levi Johnston, former boyfriend of Bristol Palin, filed a letter of intent to run for mayor on Aug. 20, 2010. He followed that with a June 3 financial report stating that from the time he filed his letter of intent through June 2, he had raised no funds and hasn’t received any campaign contributions.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.