Richland council members will earn thousands more next year after approving own pay raises
Richland County Council members will see a nearly $8,000 bump in their paychecks next year, after a split council gave final approval to raising their own salaries Tuesday night.
The 8-3 vote marks the second time in the past 27 years that council members have approved a raise for themselves. The last raise came in 2012, when council members raised their pay to $17,777 from $14,500, where the pay standard had sat since 1995.
When council members last raised their salaries, they failed to change the county ordinance, or law, which defines council salaries. So for 10 years, council members actually were paid thousands of dollars more than the salary set by that county ordinance.
Despite the discrepancy, council members most likely have not been paid illegally for the past decade, according to an explanation from the South Carolina Association of Counties.
That’s because the county’s annual budget, which includes council members’ salaries, is voted on in a separate ordinance each year. So while council’s actual pay is outside the bounds of one county law, it has stayed in compliance with the county budget, another county law.
Richland County Council’s vote on Tuesday amends their salary ordinance and raises their salaries to equal 80% of the lowest-paid county employees, who currently earn about $32,000. The county this year increased the employee minimum salary to that figure.
Council members will now earn about $25,600 per year, with an additional 10% pay for the council chairperson.
It’s an increase of $7,823 over the $17,777 council members have been paid for the past 10 years, and an increase of more than $11,000 over what is set in the council pay ordinance.
Council members Derrek Pugh, Yvonne McBride, Paul Livingston, Allison Terracio, Gretchen Barron, Overture Walker, Jesica Mackey and Cheryl English voted in favor of the raise. Voting against the raise were council members Bill Malinowski, Joe Walker and Chakisse Newton.
Malinowski proposed raising council pay 4%, to match the pay raise given to most county employees in the most recent budget. Only he and Joe Walker voted in favor of that proposal.
Speaking at a public hearing before Tuesday night’s vote, county resident Elaine Cooper chided council members who voted to raise their pay.
“How can you look in someone’s eyes who has worked full time and be paid as much as them ... when you only show up a couple times a month?” Cooper said. “I never asked for a raise like this in all the 30 years I worked at a public broadcast station, and you are public servants. Where is your moral compass?”
None of the council members who voted for the raise commented on their vote during Tuesday’s meeting.
Council Chairman Overture Walker, in a statement emailed to The State newspaper prior to the final vote, said, in part, “It is important for the public to know that Council is not increasing its pay by 80% but rather implementing a recommendation from the Administrator that passed as part of the 2023 Fiscal Year Budget in June of this year.”
Overture Walker noted that most county employees received at least a 4% raise in the latest county budget, “which was higher than the State and City” cost of living pay increases. He also noted that the raises do not require a tax increase.
“Unfortunately, the Council pay increase item is being used as a political straw man to create a public narrative that County Council is increasing its pay at the expense of employees and public safety,” he said in his emailed statement. “Said narrative is just patently false and borderline reprehensible.”
The ordinance notes that the new salaries will take effect at the start of the new council terms in January, following the general election.
On Nov. 8, roughly half the council’s seats are up for election, with several sitting council members running unopposed for reelection.
Joe Walker is stepping down from the council this year, with Democrat Bryan Burroughs and Republican Don Weaver competing for his District 6 seat. Incumbents Livingston, Terracio and Newton are running unopposed in Districts 4, 5 and 11, respectfully. Jason Branham is the sole candidate to replace outgoing councilman Malinowski in District 1, but a write-in campaign has been launched for Malinowski.
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 6:52 PM.
