Starting in 2026, city council members in Littleton will make more money.

At a meeting on Sept. 5, the council voted to approve an increase to council salaries that have been in place since 2015. Their approval of the ordinance will also allow future mayors and council members to enroll in city health insurance benefits at full cost to the person enrolling.

Council approved the ordinance in a 4-2 vote, with District 1 Councilmember Patrick Driscoll and District 2 Councilmember Jerry Valdes dissenting.

At Large Councilmember Pam Grove was abset.

Per the city charter, salaries for the elected board are set by ordinance. They cannot be increased during the current term of council members enacting the ordinance, requiring the change to go into effect for future elected leaders.

New compensation structure

The new city council salaries will be set as percentages of the area median income, or AMI, and will adjust annually to reflect changes in the AMI. The city is basing the compensation numbers on the AMI values set by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to city documents.

Linking salaries to AMI is a change, as councilmembers are currently on fixed salaries.

Current salaries for council members vary slightly based on position, with the mayor earning $16,200 per year, the mayor pro tem earning $14,700 and other council members making $13,200, according to city documents.

Mayor Kyle Schlachter said linking salaries to AMI would make it so future councils don’t have to address compensation. Instead, the money they make will increase with inflation each year.

The new payment structure sets the mayor’s salary at 30% of AMI. For reference, this would come out to an annual salary of about $26,000 if it were to go into effect based on 2023 AMI numbers.

Since the change will not go into effect until 2026, the salary values will change based on the most up-to-date AMI numbers at that time.

The mayor pro tem’s new salary will be set at 25% of AMI, which would be about $22,000 based on 2023 AMI.

City councilmembers will receive a salary of 20% of AMI, which would be about $17,000, based on 2023 numbers.

Disagreement among councilmembers

Driscoll and Valdes, who opposed the salary changes, said they did not support linking the salaries to a value that will increase each year.

“What Jerry and I are concerned about is … this constant adjustment of going up, up, up,” Driscoll said. “This job is still the same job that past councils have done and that future councils will do.”

He said unless someone could justify that council’s jobs were changing significantly to justify the increase, he did not think it was reasonable.

“This council seems to want to spend money more than it does want to cut,” Valdes said.

Other council members said raising the salaries was a way to make running for local leadership more attainable for diverse individuals.

“There's a whole group of potential folks out there who I think have financial limitations, and we don't hear their voice,” Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Rydin said. “I want to support this because I really want to support the future leaders and the future people who want to be on council.”

Schlachter said money is often a reason people do not run for office. He noted the two unopposed council seat races in the upcoming November election.

“I don't know why there weren't more people in (the races), but I can tell you that we need to do things to encourage people to step up, because right now, that’s not what's happening in our community here,” he said. “This is not going to fix everything, but I think it's a step in the right direction.”

Valdes and Driscoll both made motions to amend the ordinance to raise salaries, but not have them linked to AMI. Both motions failed.

Other benefits

City councilmembers will also have the opportunity to enroll in city health insurance benefits, with council members who choose to enroll paying 100% of their premium costs.

Valdes moved to remove the section of the ordinance that would allow this, but there was no second.

District 3 Councilmember Stephen Barr proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would also make council members eligible for the city’s tuition reimbursement program for job-related college credit courses, certification programs and continuing education.

His proposed amendment failed in a 3-3 vote, with Driscoll, Valdes and District 4 Councilmember Kelly Milliman voting against it.