The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved a salary compensation package and salary adjustment procedures for the position of Borough Mayor, setting in motion changes to the Mayor’s salary which has remained constant since 2011.
The Assembly passed a modified Ordinance 2023-01 at the Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday, approving a salary compensation of [$99,000] $130,000 per year. The Assembly removed language addressing increases to the Mayor’s salary adjusted to inflation. The current salary level dates back over 10 years and according to current Borough Mayor Mike Navarre, the mayor’s salary would have increased to $135,000 if adjusted for inflation from 1990 to 2011 and to $170,000 if adjusted for inflation from 2011 and 2022.
Borough Mayor Mike Navarre discussed the salary increase;
“What the borough assembly passed was an increase in the mayor’s salary from $99,000 a year to $130,000 a year. Now, the mayor’s position is not in the retirement system, although we still have to pay in for it it’s a goofy nuance of the state laws but anyway they passed an increase in the salary to recognize that it’s a full time management job. If you look at the city managers which we did, Kenai, Soldotna, Homer all of them get paid more than the borough mayor and so if it’s a professional position we ought to recognize it as such and it’s always difficult to increase the salary any mayor who’s in there can’t change it when they’re in office or becomes a big political issue so I thought the timing was right since I am an interim mayor and I’m not running for the office that and it was a good time to ask the assembly to do it, it passed unanimously.”
Navarre also explained the change in language to the Mayor’s salary adjusted to inflation;
“They also passed or changed the provision we had an automatic increase in there every three years and instead they will just consider information after three years and then make a determination on how much or if they’re going to raise the mayor’s salary so I think it’s a better process now and sort of takes a little bit of the politics out of it at the same time recognizes that is a full time professional management job.”
Ordinance 2023-01 was approved unanimously by the Assembly.
The current Borough Mayor (Navarre) and the winner of the special election for Borough Mayor, currently ongoing, will not be eligible for the newly-approved salary package. The ordinance takes effect with the next regularly scheduled election for Borough Mayor in October of 2023. Assembly members approved language which allows for the mayor’s salary will be evaluated and possibly adjusted at the end of each term in office by the borough assembly.