The Seward City Council voted to amend city code to adjust monthly stipend amounts to reflect the 50th percentile for compensation in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, and enacted Seward City Code to establish a stipend for planning and zoning commissioners. According to corresponding documents, council members spend a considerable amount of their personal time in service to the citizens of Seward. Council is required to attend regular meetings, be available and accessible to their constituents, and prepare for meetings and work sessions by performing their own research on their own time.
City Clerk Brenda Ballou says that the council stipend hasn’t changed since 1986:
“As we talked about briefly during the introduction of this ordinance, it’s been 40-ish, almost 40 years since any stipend adjustment has been made for council with the exception of one that was done in 1996 but then reconsidered and failed. So, we kind of thought it was time to take a look at it again and, based on the spending that we did across the Borough, the 50th percentile would, in essence, double the stipend for mayor and council, but still just be a modest stipend.”
Ordinance 2021-005 states that, for the last 35 years, council have received the nominal stipend of $200 per month, $300 for the mayor, for their service. In today’s dollars, that amount would equate to $490 per month, $735 for the mayor. The City states that, in acknowledgement of the weight of the responsibilities handled, it’s recommended that the monthly stipend be increased to reflect the 50th percentile for the borough in the amount of $400 per month for council and $600 for the mayor.
In addition, appointed representatives on the Seward Planning & Zoning Commission are required to attend a minimum of one meeting per month, as well as work sessions and special meetings, on behalf of the city. As a result, it was recommended that there be a stipend for the commissioners for Planning and Zoning in the amount of $100 per month.
Ordinance 2021-005 passed the Seward City Council.
Click here to watch the June 28th Seward City Council.
