PORTERDALE, Ga. — Members of the Porterdale City Council and the mayor will receive a significant boost in their monthly pay come January.
At the city’s Monday night meeting, council members voted to amend their ordinances to increase their current salaries by more than double their current compensation amounts. The new wages will go into effect in January 2026.
Compensation of the mayor and council has not increased in more than a decade.
The five council members are each currently paid $200 a month, adding up to $2,400 each year. In January, monthly pay will increase to $500, totaling $6,000 a year.
Presently, the mayor is paid $400 a month, amounting to $4,800 a year. The council voted to increase his monthly pay to $1,000 a month, which will total to $12,000 per year.
This will increase the total amount budgeted to pay the council each year from $16,800 to $42,000 — a $25,200 increase.
The council voted 4-0 to pass the amendment.
Councilman Lowell Chambers remained opposed to the pay increase, citing parallels between public service and nonprofit work. But with Mayor Michael Patterson absent from the meeting, Chambers assumed the role of mayor pro-tem. As mayor pro-tem, Chambers did not cast a vote.
Four community members chose to speak during the public hearing portion of the agenda.
One point that was echoed by a Porterdale resident was the order of business items on the agenda. Voting on the proposed pay increase was to be immediately followed by discussion of increasing the city’s millage rate.
“It’s very difficult to look at passing the two proposals at the same time,” the resident said.
In response, Councilwoman Halima Muhammad took a moment to point out where the additional $25,200 will be derived from, saying that the millage rate increase is not correlated to the wage increase.
“I do understand the alarm and concern that we have two items that we’re having a public hearing for, and I could see how you guys feel like that’s interchangeable,” Muhammad said. “…this has nothing to do with the taxes, the proposed tax increase. We do have a travel budget that we’re going to tap into because we simply don’t use it. It just rolls over every year. So there’s already a budget that was allocated to council for going to classes, travelling and all the things.”
Additionally, the timeliness of both agenda items coincided in a way where swift council action is necessary.
Georgia Code § 36-35-4 dictates a municipality’s authority to increase compensation. It specifies that such action cannot be taken once the qualifying period for the election is underway. The qualifying period for Porterdale’s upcoming municipal election begins on Aug. 18 and ends on Aug. 22..
While some public comments highlighted that no job’s wages double overnight, the council noted that their wages have not kept up with the cost of living.
“As we’ve mentioned before, this was brought to us by the mayor because he was doing some research into what other cities around us make,” said Councilwoman Bekah Sue Sewell. “…I think that all of us are apprehensive to approve it, but at the same time, there is a factor that needs to be included of staying on track with what everyone around us is and not being so far behind that at some point in the future it’s even more egregious or something of that nature. But the spirit of all of us serving is, as Lowell [Chambers] mentioned, because we want to and we’re here to serve our community.”
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