Explanation
This ordinance amends the Management Compensation Plan by providing increases in salaries for the City Council Members, the City Auditor, and the City Attorney in 2006 and setting salaries for succeeding years. It is necessary to review and set the potential future salaries before the beginning of new terms of office in January 2006, because salaries for these positions cannot be increased during an elected official's term of office pursuant to the City Charter. These salaries, therefore, will take effect January 1, 2006.
The positions of City Auditor and City Attorney have historically been paid at a higher rate of pay than most of the mayor's cabinet. That circumstance reflected the considerable judgment and oversight responsibilities exercised by the auditor and attorney on behalf of Columbus citizens; the fact that each of those positions serve in an important and critical advisory capacity to cabinet officials and other elected officials; and the fact that as separately elected officials in their own right, the city auditor and city attorney are accountable to the citizens and not to the mayor as appointed officials. As recently as 1999 for example, there was an approximate $10,000 differential in pay between the city auditor and city attorney as compared to most of the mayor's department directors.
That relationship reversed itself with implementation of the Hay Study in 2000-an extensive review and analysis of the city's job classifications and responsibilities, including a market survey with comparable municipal and private entities. In general, the Hay Study concluded that cabinet level positions were significantly underpaid relative to the market, resulting in significant one-time upward adjustments in pay. The Hay Study, however, excluded the positions of city auditor and city attorney. Had each been included, and had each been adjusted upward in a similar fashion as implemented for department directors, the annual salary for c...
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