An ordinance amending the approved 2018 salary ordinance was considered on first reading during Monday night’s North Judson Town Council meeting.
When the town council members passed the salary ordinance back in January, it included a 3 percent raise across the board, except for Town Marshal Kelly Fisher who forfeited her raise to supplement the raises of her officers.
In the initial ordinance, town council members were included in the individuals who would receive the raise. However, Town Attorney Justin Schramm said that due to when the ordinance was passed, that raise could potentially be seen as questionable by state officials.
“Because we had so many things that were stacked up, we actually didn’t get ours passed until January 2nd of 2018. The State Board of Accounts doesn’t like that, they consider it a conflict of interest if you’re a legislative body and you vote yourself a raise, you can’t take it until the following year.” Schramm explained, “Since we didn’t get ours passed until 2018, the Town Council, the legislative body, can’t vote themselves a 3% raise.”
Schramm elaborated, saying that this was really just an issue of timing, rather than an ethical concern since the council members didn’t know they weren’t permitted to accept the raise. However, should they ever be audited, he said the members could be asked to return that money at some point down the line.
Schramm added that if they wish to take a raise in 2019, it will need to be approved prior to the first of the year.
When it came time to vote, Council President Wendy Hoppe, Councilman Josh Browne and Councilman James Young voted in favor, while Councilman John Rowe abstained. Since Councilwoman Jane Ellen Felchuck was not present, the ordinance was not passed. Schramm explained that in order for it to pass on first reading it would have needed 2/3rd approval and it only received 3/5ths.
The amended ordinance will be considered on second reading during the next North Judson Town Council meeting.
