Wausau City Council Votes Down Pay Raise for Aldermen

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 -- 9:01 AM

(Mike Leischner, WSAU) What may have seemed like a rubber-stamp vote to turn down a proposed three percent pay raise for Wausau's Mayor and City Council representatives was anything but on Tuesday.

Alders Lou Larson and Dawn Herbst both stood up for the measure. Lou: "We give 3% raises to everybody, but we exclude ourselves year, after year, after year. And, as you say, it's been 16 years since we've had any increase. And not that the 3% is going to matter to anyone of us either way, but it's the principal of the fact."

Dawn: "We just have to take into consideration, and so do others, all the time that is involved in reading all the materials. And you know, as well as I do, that when we start reading 200 some pages, 300 some pages, that's time consuming."

Then Alder Tom Kilian surprised everyone by offering an amendment, a three percent pay DECREASE because he doesn't feel city government is being transparent enough.

"I feel like, at times, even after robust discussion, the body is still making some of the same faux paz and follies on policy like we just talked about with public participation until, perhaps, we can hit some performance metrics in the future. But we can leave the performance part off for now and my amendment would just be the 3% decrease. 

Ultimately, both motions failed, and pay for alders and the Mayor will remain at the current levels for the next election cycle, which begins in December when candidates for City Council and Mayor can begin circulating their nominating papers.

Neither Herbst nor Larson were on the Human Resources or Finance Committees who both voted the pay raise down unanimously before Tuesday's city council meeting.

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