Raising the salaries of the mayor and aldermen, as was approved Tuesday in Magnolia, appears to be legal, but a dissenting alderman is still decrying the move.
Pay for Mayor Anthony Witherspoon was raised from $20,444 to $35,000, while aldermen bumped their own pay from $652 to $754 per month.
The increases passed 4-1, with Alderman Joe Cornacchione voting against.
“Just because we can do this doesn’t mean it’s right,” Cornacchione said. “I think a raise should be earned first. The citizens should be outraged. I don’t think anybody asked them what they thought.
“I would think if people knew the board was giving themselves a 86 percent raise, they’d be up in arms.”
Cornacchione noted that, in addition to the base raise, the city must pay more into the state retirement system for each alderman, as well Social Security.
The board also added health insurance for aldermen, which is about $465 per month.
Cornacchione’s calculations show the raises and extra benefits will cost Magnolia another $44,480 per year.
“We don’t give our part-time employees health insurance,” Cornacchione said. “We’re a part-time board. I don’t see why we’re entitled to health insurance. It’s crazy to waste that kind of money.
“I think people will be saying, if you can give yourself a raise, why can’t you fix my street?”
While state statutes covering some forms of municipal government prohibit the awarding of raises to elected officials within the same term of office, the section which covers Magnolia and most of the rest of Mississippi’s municipalities is silent on that matter.
A number of attorney general’s opinions through the years, including one issued as recently as 2010 to the mayor of Lumberton, affirms the right of municipalities operating as code-charter cities under state law to increase or decrease elected officials’ salaries at any time.
Magnolia City Clerk Cynthia Richardson confirmed this morning that Magnolia operates under code charter.
Frequently cited in the opinions is a 1954 Mississippi Supreme Court ruling in the case Alexander v. Edwards, in which the court said, “We hold that the governing authorities of municipalities operating under a code charter have lawful authority to raise their salaries during their term of office ...
“The governing authorities may set salaries for the mayor and board of aldermen that are set in good faith, and are not arbitrary and unreasonable when considered with the municipal resources and the duties of the office.”
Cornacchione questions whether the raises are, in fact, reasonable.
A comparison compiled by Cornacchione of other municipalities statewide shows great variance in mayoral and aldermen’s salaries, but most tended lower rather than higher.
Lumberton, about 400 people smaller than Magnolia, reported a mayoral salary of just $7,200 per year, and gave no listing for aldermen’s salaries to the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.
Iuka, with about 600 more people, pays its mayor $19,700 per year and aldermen $600 per month.
On the higher end, Raymond — with a population of 1,933, one of Hinds County’s county seats and home of the main Hinds Community College campus — pays its mayor $42,540 a year and aldermen $400 per month.
Mendenhall, roughly the same size as Magnolia, pays its mayor $33,800 per year and pays aldermen $750 per month.
Cornacchione said Magnolia would compare better to Monticello — population 1,758, and in the same region of the state — which pays its mayor $15,775 per year and aldermen $433 per month.
“Some of those towns could be closer to bigger cities, or they could have more housing or industrial development,” he said. “Magnolia’s population hasn’t changed in 30 years, except for an annexation. Magnolia doesn’t have a lot of industry, and there are no big housing developments being built.”
The Enterprise-Journal received no response from attempts to contact Mayor Anthony Witherspoon, Alderman Clarence Burton, who introduced the motion to give the raises, new board attorney Charles Miller and former board attorney Wayne Dowdy.
