Columbia Council could consider pay raises, retirement health benefits

After nearly a decade since Columbia City Council last adjusted its own salaries, council members could soon reevaluate the value of their services and discuss whether longer-serving members should receive health benefits after they step down from city service.

Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine recently proposed an ordinance that would allow elected officials and their dependents to be eligible for health benefits upon retiring after at least three consecutive terms, or 12 years, of service. Along with that proposal, Devine also suggested council have a discussion about possibly raising their salaries, which have stayed level at $13,350 since 2006.

“I don’t believe anybody (on council) doesn’t actually believe we don’t deserve to be looking at an increase,” Devine said. “We are tasked with looking at city staff. No one else is tasked with looking at us. And if we don’t look at us, we get ignored.”

It’s a discussion Devine wants to have with the full council present and able to delve in with their attention, she said, which may not happen until around the end of the year, after upcoming council elections.

Council members have not received any of the five cost-of-living pay increases they approved for city staff since 2006. If they had received the proportional cost-of-living increases between 2007 and 2013, not including another increase in 2014, council members would earn $15,177.26 annually – some $1,800 more than their current yearly compensation.

A sampling of other area municipalities, whose councils govern jurisdictions of a variety of sizes and responsibilities, shows council members make $10,158 in West Columbia; up to $11,500 in the town of Lexington; $7,200 in Irmo; $6,600 in Forest Acres; and up to $16,500 in Cayce.

“Obviously, our salaries don’t in any way cover the cost of what we provide, but we knew that ... when we decided to run,” Councilwoman Leona Plaugh said. Plaugh added that though she is not opposed to reevaluating council salaries, she does not yet know whether a raise would be appropriate.

In 2013, council voted to raise the mayor’s salary to $75,000, an increase from $17,500. That was after voters rejected a change to a strong-mayor form of government that would have made the mayor’s job full time – and given him a full-time salary of $160,000.

By state law, any council salary changes voted by council would not go into effect until after the next general election of council members following the vote.

At least one council member says he would not support council voting to raise its own salaries.

“I don’t think we do this for the money, and I don’t want to create a situation where you incentivize people to run for office,” Councilman Cameron Runyan said. “It should be a sacrifice.”

But, Runyan said, he would be willing to let residents take a vote on it.

Runyan said he also would oppose allowing council members to receive retirement health benefits after 12 years of service.

Columbia provides health insurance through its own plan, not the state system. City staff, both elected and non-elected, are eligible for retirement health benefits after 28 years of service. But, it is highly unusual for council members to serve that long.

Benefits in retirement are what is at issue. While in office, council members already are eligible for the same health coverage as full-time city employees. If they receive it, they pay the same premiums as other city employees.

Under Devine’s proposal, retired council members would pay the same premiums as other city retirees and dependents receiving health benefits, depending on their levels of coverage. The difference is they would be eligible to receive benefits after fewer years of service than non-elected retirees.

“I just don’t think it’s fair for politicians to have one set of rules and city employees, who are actually doing the hard work, to have a different set,” Runyan said.

After 12 or more years of service to the city, Devine said, council members have given up a significant portion of their work lives and deserve to receive benefits.

“Service to citizens shouldn’t mean that you can’t provide for yourself and your family long term,” Devine said.

Devine and Councilman Sam Davis are the only current council members who have served three or more four-year terms, with Davis first elected in 1998 and Devine in 2002.

Devine’s three-term proposal was gleaned from similar retirement models for elected officials she has seen in other states, she said.

In some municipalities and counties in South Carolina, including Columbia currently, elected officials are eligible for retirement benefits only when they meet the same criteria, including length of service, as non-elected employees.

The city currently provides health insurance coverage to 812 retirees and dependents at a cost to the city of about $6.3 million last year, according to Pamela Benjamin, the city’s director of human resources.

This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Columbia Council could consider pay raises, retirement health benefits."