Pay rates for borough mayor and council members were unofficially lowered in 2010.
ECONOMY — Eight years after their adoption, borough officials' pay rates will be etched in stone.
Council next month will vote on an ordinance that formalizes pay for elected officials that were set in 2010. Council adopted the pay rates for mayor, council president and council members in 2010, but never enacted an ordinance to make the rates official, borough Manager Randy Kunkle said.
"This corrects an error," Kunkle said.
Under the 2010 changes, the mayor's pay dropped from $2,600 to $2,300; the council president's pay went from $2,400 to $2,100; and council member pay dropped from $2,100 to $1,800. The previous pay rates were adopted in 2004, but, like the 2010 changes, were never formalized by an ordinance.
The pay rates would not take effect during a voting elected official's term, Kunkle said, meaning that the change didn't take effect until the official was re-elected.
"You can't change your own pay," Kunkle said. "If you are re-elected, your pay can change, but you can't change it during a current term."
Payroll records from 2016 and 2017 show that council and the mayor's pay reflect the rate that was adopted previously.
Kunkle said that the oversight was caught by a council member.