CRESWELL – During her last meeting on city council, Staci Holt suggested that councilors opt out of the council stipend.
City councilors do not receive an hourly wage or salary and serve the community as volunteers. Instead, they are provided a stipend. A predetermined amount of money is provided periodically to help offset expenses.
According to the city council stipend policy, councilors spend time maintaining a home office, are responsible for following all public meetings, public records, and public ethics laws, spend hours away from their families for various meetings, trainings, and discussions with citizens, and must have access to the internet in order to receive city emails and conduct city business.
“It’s really bothered me that the council’s taking a stipend when we have a lot of things that the City of Creswell has to get done. We’re costing our constituents a lot of money,” Holt said. “It just occurred to me that maybe this is something that we don’t need, or maybe it’s something we can talk about as being voluntary.”
Finance Director Jim Piper said it is not unusual for city councilors to receive stipends for the services. In fact, several cities in Oregon have a stipend policy, including Eugene, Bend, Hillsboro, Corvallis, Ashland, and more.
In Creswell, each member of the Council receives a home office and technology allowance of $75 per month, and with seven council members, that totals $525 a month. That is $6,300 a year.
Nearly $14,000 a year is given to councilors in stipends. In addition to the technology allowance, the mayor receives $150 per month, the council president receives $100 per month, and each remaining council member gets $75 per month. After 12 months, that is a yearly stipend budget of $13,800.
“To me, that money could be put to use alleviating some of the cost of the wastewater projects or the water projects,” Holt said.
City Manager Vincent Martorello explained that the stipend is considered the councilor’s property, so they would still have to receive it, but it can be donated. He said another option would be to work with staff to forgo the stipend.
According to the IRS, because of the council’s resolution, councilors are expected to receive it. Whether they receive it or not, the IRS will tax them for it. Because of the language in the council’s resolution, the stipend is not optional.
“While it is subject to federal taxes and PERS, it is not a salary nor hourly wage because the individual is not part of the City’s payroll,” reads the City’s policy.
For the council to opt out of the stipend, they will need to rescind the original resolution and pass a new one. The council generally agreed that the stipend should be optional and requested city staff to come back with a solution.
Martorello said he will look into it and prepare a resolution for August or September.
