Hopkins Mayoral Challenger Pledges to Forgo Pay If Elected

Mayoral challenger Garold Healy has pledged to forgo his salary if elected and urges present and future council members to do the same.

“That’s the way it should be really,” he told Patch on Thursday. “It’s a part-time job. People give their time to other events. This is no different.”

Healy made the promise in a news release he sent out Wednesday night. In it, he notes how the recession has hurt every level of the economy and that people are suffering from unemployment and pay cuts. Government officials should lead the way in sharing the burden during hard times, he said.

Hopkins’ mayor makes $6,000 per year. members make $4,600. Pay for both positions hasn’t changed since 1998. Those salaries are lower than any Hennepin County community with a population between 10,000 and 25,000. Pay in Champlin, the next lowest, is $9,550 for the mayor and $6,610 for council members.

“It's not like we're sitting up there asking for pay raises all the time,”  Mayor Gene Maxwell said. "Everyone knows the reason they're there."

Maxwell sees the pay as a stipend for the time and effort involved in the job—and notes that he and other council members don't claim expenses. All the other candidates for city positions feel a salary is justified—and council candidate Wendy Anderson thinks it should be increased.

(See the table at the bottom of the article to read each candidate’s opinion in more detail.)

Healy acknowledges that cutting $6,000 wouldn’t be a huge change for Hopkins’ budget. But he said it’s fair compensation for what he characterized as a “sporadic” job that mostly involves council meetings and community events—perhaps three or four hours a day if you add it up.

“When you get money involved, it becomes a power thing,” he said. “If this was a full-time job, that’d be a different thing.”

Maxwell said he spends at least 10 to 15 hours per week on city business—and that's not counting the e-mails, phone calls and visits to his store. The mayor and council members attend meetings, community events and conferences. They speak to clubs, attend other meetings downtown and read through city reports and memoranda.

"Some people just don't realize how much of a time commitment this is," he said.

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What do the candidates think?

Candidate

Position

Garold Healy

Healy is the one who proposed eliminating council pay. “That’s the way it should be really,” he said. “It’s a part-time job. People give their time to other events. This is no different.”

“Absolutely without question (they should receive pay). It’s a lot of work. You put in a lot of work and a lot of hours,” she said, adding that Hopkins is on the low end and should increase pay. She said she’d need to do more research on what other communities do before pinning down a specific number, but she thinks it should probably be “several percentages higher.”

“I think what they make is just fine. I don’t think anyone who’s serving on the council or (the) mayor is doing it for the money,” Cummings said. She said city officials don’t even make minimum wage considering all the meetings and events they must attend. “It’s a very, very large commitment,” she said. “We as citizens can make some form of investment in our council and mayor to attract the best candidates.”

Jason Gadd

“What Hopkins currently does, I wouldn’t consider a salary. I would consider it a stipend,” said Gadd, who added that he actually didn’t know council members received pay when he filed. “From my understanding, it’s a lot more (work) than you think going in,” he said. “It’s the least that we as a community can do to help and show our support for those who make the community better.”