Rehoboth Beach Commissioners vote down two proposed salary increases for themselves.
The first proposal, from Commissioner Suzanne Goode, was a massive salary increase - from $600 per year to $8,000 per year for commissioners and from $1,000 to $18,000 per year for the mayor.
“Once we start paying salaries of tens of thousands of dollars, it completely changes the nature of our service and the nature of our relationships with our citizens," said Commissioner Patrick Gossett. "We become paid city employees and not public servants.”
Commissioner Christopher Galanty, in his first meeting as a member of the body, also opposed any salary increase.
“I knew what the salary was when I ran, and I accepted that," Galanty said. "An increase in salary is not going to incentivize me. It is not going to change my performance.”
After Goode’s proposal failed 5-1 with one abstention, Commissioner Mark Saunders offered a more modest measure: $3,600 per year for the mayor and $2,400 per year for commissioners. It also failed, 4-2 with one abstention.
Before a vote on Saunders’s proposal, Goode expressed her frustration.
“It is hard, with all of the fiscally irresponsible projects I've tried to stop, to see a city which won't let me devote the time to being effective in that role," she said.
In addition to other business, the commission swore in two new members - Galanty and Susan Stewart. Stewart abstained from both votes on salary increases.
