Charter Changes Leads to Big Salary Increase for Future RBS Mayor
By Misty Green
The final changes to the Red Boiling Springs City Charter are still being discussed, however, the issue of updating the salaries for the positions of Mayor and City Council members was unanimously voted to a substantial increase during the Thursday, June 13th meeting.
The salaries of the governing body were previously set back in the 1950s, so Red Boiling Springs Mayor Kenneth Hollis asked the present council members if they had any thoughts on changing the mayor and council salaries, stating this needed to be done before the next election.
“It ranges, from what I understand, and I have talked to some different ones,” Mayor Hollis began, “And some of them are paid big money and some are paid nothing… The cheapest one I have heard is around $300 weekly for the mayor.”
“I have talked to some people and the lowest I’ve heard about the council’s salary is $125 for each meeting and it goes on up to $300 in bigger cities,” Linda Carver stated.
“The council (salary) needs to be $100 to $125,” Hollis replied, “Because people don’t, just like we were talking about earlier, trying to find people to work… I mean, you just had barely enough in Lafayette… They just had one to turn out for mayor and barely got enough for the council and they are paid pretty good for these positions, but people don’t want to do anything for free anymore… They just don’t do it.”
“This is something that won’t really be for us but for all the ones sitting here from now on,” Hollis explained, “The council at least needs to be $100 to $125 per meeting and special called meetings at $75.”
“The thing about it is, Red Boiling is growing, it’s growing leaps and bounds,” Hollis said, “It’s every time you turn around there is more people coming to town, there are more business going on, ya’ll take calls, I take calls… Some look at it like we should be doing this for free and if that was the case, people would be beating the door down, wanting to come in… But they are not here, so $125 and $75 is fair.”
“What do you think Brandon,” Hollis asked city attorney Branden Bellar, to which he replied, “It is reasonable.”
“$300 a week for the mayor,” Hollis said, “And I think the mayor ought to probably, you ought to put the mayor, whoever the mayor is, if I give it up or whatever, if one of ya’ll or something, whatever happens, you probably need to do him with benefits as far as the insurance… I mean that’s fair… There is stuff that happens all of the time and in the next election is when it goes into effect… I mean it takes time being Mayor, there’s stuff they want you to look at, I have had four or five calls today, and two of them were on the cemetery where they are cutting those trees… It ain’t the point of the money but looking down the road, somebody ain’t going to come in and do it for nothing… Most people won’t do it for nothing… So are ya’ll fine with that, $300 plus insurance,” Hollis asked.
$300 plus insurance for an elected official,” Council member Michael Rich began to say, “I don’t know, it doesn’t sound right with insurance benefits for some reason in my head… It just doesn’t sound right… I’m sorry.”
“That’s what we are here for and what we want to know,” Hollis said, “What do ya’ll think… The money at 52 weeks is $15,600 a year, and insurance is $22,000 a year.” This would total $37,600 for the Mayor’s salary with the insurance benefit.
Red Boiling Springs has a population of 1,205 as of 2024. The City of Lafayette has a population of 5,584 people. Lafayette City Council members receive $100 per meeting and $50 each committee meeting. The Mayor receives a salary of $45,000, and also health insurance, and travel expenses.
“What about it doesn’t sound right to you,” Council member Donna Grisham asked Mr. Rich.
“Insurance benefits just does not sound right and I don’t know why,” he replied.
“The mayor job is 24/7… Everyday,” Grisham stated. “And it is a lot of responsibility,” Hollis agreed. “It use to be years ago the set up of $100 a week, back in the 1950s, and $100 a week anymore won’t even pay for your gas running back to town… We raised it, but it is time to get according to everybody else… The council in Portland makes $500 a month.”
“If we were to raise the mayor’s salary, do we offset that somehow with this insurance thing,” Michael Rich asked. “It will balance out either way,” Hollis replied. “I really do think it would sound better,” Rich added.
“The mayor in Gordonsville gets a salary of $84,000.00, with insurance and retirement,” Attorney Bellar told the council.
“I was just wondering, by you being part-time can we even provide you insurance,” Water Department Supervisor Chad Owens stated from the back of the room.
“What would be considered full-time and what would be considered part-time,” Hollis asked, “Because if you are out and having to do it all of the time, it would be full-time.”
“If you’re full-time, you can be on all of the benefits you know,” Owens replied.
“But you are not considered a full-time employee,” Councilman George McCrary stated.
“Well that’s what we are changing,” Hollis said, “If you were talking about Gordonsville with $1,000.00… so this ain’t nothing,” he added.
“The only reason we are setting the insurance is because if they done that then they would have to pay me holiday pay and all that… and the Mayor at $300 weekly plus insurance would cover it.”
“It is a lot of responsibility, and anytime you go in a store, somebody pulls you off and wants to talk.”
“It’s well worth the pay and insurance in my opinion,” Chad Owens replied, “Because I wouldn’t do it for $100 a week.”
A motion to update the charter with the new salaries was unanimously approved. Council member Helen Gregory was absent.
Council members voted to set the tax rate at 95 cents, also adopting the budget for 2024-25 on the second reading.
The council discussed direct deposit for city employees, voting to close the Macon Bank payroll account and open a payroll account at Citizens Bank. It was mentioned that the change was due to the timeframe of payroll being an issue at Macon Bank and that Citizens Bank has online banking meaning funds can be directly deposited into payroll the same day, while also waiving the fee for the city due to all of the accounts they now have open at Citizens Bank.
The council voted to approve hiring James Key to the Sanitation Department as a truck driver, with pay set at $17 per hour.
In the parks department, the council voted to allow Tri-County Electric to fix the lighting system at the tennis court, which will include new cross bars and LED lights, for a cost of $82 per month.
Mayor Hollis told the council that they have been cutting trees at Whitley Cemetery, and that there was one more Cedar tree to be cut, and then Adrian Powell could begin cleaning up the land and will have more land for graves when he is finished.
The police department reported they had recently closed two major felony cases and then shared the monthly report for May, which stated they received 76 calls for service, 60 traffic stops, 18 citations, a bunch of warnings, five arrests, and 11 incident/accident reports.
Liquor-by-the-Drink was passed on second reading, which will now be placed on the election ballot in November.
A vacant council seat was declared open during this meeting and interested citizens of Red Boiling Springs may contact City Hall to discuss the desire to fill the council seat.
