Eastern Shore Mayor Gets Payraise

Fairhope City Council President Bob Gentle says the city's chief officer should be compensated for his time and hard work.

"I think the mayor deserves to be paid for his duties," says Gentle.

In August, Fairhope's mayor will get a 34-thousand dollar payraise. The current salary will jump from 16-thousand dollars a year to 50-thousand dollars annually. But those numbers might be deceiving. The mayor is also the head of the city utilities department, which pays an additional 77-thousand dollars a year. The city council could vote to split the two positions.

"It looks like a payraise, going from 16-thousand dollars to 50-thousand," says councilman Mike Ford. "But if the city council splits the two positions, it'd actually be a paycut."

Fairhope Mayor Tim Kant agrees and can't understand the council's logic.

"I believe that it ought to be transparent and quit hiding salaries like they have the past 50 years and just call it what it is, one salary, here it is, and that's the end and then that way, you'll have a good, quality person running for office that will run this city and keep us from having a sales tax," says Kant.