Mayor's pay trails behind city officials'

Of the highest-paid people working for Augusta's city government, the mayor ranks 58th.

He earns less than the county marshal, the city clerk and the interim airport director, and he falls way short of breaking into the proverbial $100K club -- those with salaries of $100,000 or more, including the fire chief, the human resources director, the library director and a deputy city administrator.

State Rep. Hardie Davis says maybe it's time for this to change. But now might not be the best time to talk about raising an elected official's pay, and Mr. Davis' proposal last month to raise the mayor's salary from $75,845 to $137,723 fell flat during the legislative session that ended Friday night.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver even denounced the idea himself.

But Mr. Davis is not discouraged.

During the next nine months, the Richmond County lawmaker said, he wants to start a public discussion about it, test the waters and decide whether to introduce legislation in the 2010 General Assembly. Rough-draft language he floated last month would have amended the city's consolidation bill to require that the mayor's annual salary be 1 percent higher than that of the highest-paid city employee.

"That was a just a suggestion," he said Tuesday. "I'm not saying that it has to be in the $100K club. I'm just saying that our mayor, whoever it may be, needs to be compensated in a way that's commensurate with what their duties and responsibilities are."

If duties and responsibilities are the issue, though, the salary might be right where it should be.

City Administrator Fred Russell said a discussion of the mayor's pay is really about the structure of Augusta's government. Macon, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., both have high-paid mayors, but they don't have city managers and their mayors function as chief executives, overseeing day-to-day city operations.

In Augusta, the mayor's position is mainly ceremonial. He presides over commission meetings, attends public functions and works to recruit industry. He can't hire or fire, and he only votes to break a tie on the commission, which happens rarely.

Another consideration is that in Augusta, where the median household income is an estimated $37,075, taxpayers already fund 21 six-figure salaries on the municipal government's payroll. According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, 9.5 percent of Augusta households have yearly incomes of $100,000 or more. (The figure is 25.7 percent in Columbia County.)

Augusta's estimated population was 197,372 in 2007. By comparison, the Columbus, Ga., Consolidated Government, with an estimated population of 187,046, has 11 people on its payroll earning more than $100,000. Savannah, with a population of about 130,000, has 11 in that range.

The city of Columbia, population 125,000, has 19. Greenville, S.C., population 57,400, has 12.

None of those numbers includes school systems. Add in Richmond County schools, and Augusta has 39 salaries over $100,000. The highest-paid local government employee, by far, is Superintendent Dana Bedden at $230,375.

Mr. Russell said he doesn't think the number of six-figure salaries is out of line, especially considering that the list includes state court judges and constitutional officers such as the sheriff and tax commissioner.

"It's a three-quarters of a billion-dollar operation," he said. "Put that in the context of the public sector, we're pretty cheap, in my mind."

Augusta Commissioner and Finance Committee Chairman Joe Bowles said the numbers aren't alarming to him, either. To fill important positions with educated people, a city has to be willing to pay competitive salaries, he said.

He doesn't think the mayor's salary needs adjusting, though.

"The real question about the mayor's position is, what does the mayor do?" Mr. Bowles said. "He's not the city manager."

Mr. Davis said corporations try to woo the best executives, and the city should be doing the same thing when it comes to its top ambassador. He said his interest in the issue has nothing to do with the current mayor's performance or any future candidate.

"I want to distance the conversation from Deke Copenhaver. This is about the role," Mr. Davis said. "To the extent that folks want to talk about this, we'll talk about it."

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.