SLP Council’s 2 Percent Salary Hike Fails in 3-3 Vote

The St. Louis Park city council’s salaries will stay put at around $6,800 per year as the body found itself split 3-3 Monday evening over a proposal to raise their pay by 2 percent annually.

Council members Sue Santa, Jake Spano and Julia Ross voted against raising their compensation, with mayor Jeff Jacobs absent at the meeting.

The council asked city manager Tom Harmening to look into whether the motion could be brought back at a later date, Santa said.

The raise is "right around $200 a year, which is less than $5 a week," Santa, who's running for re-election, said earlier this month. "The pay itself is kind of a stipend and does not represent any relationship to any work done."

Last week the council voted in favor of giving themselves a 2 percent pay hike for their work on the Economic Development Authority.

St. Louis Park public officials’ salaries are somewhat lower than average for the city’s comparative group of 24 similarly sized metro area municipalities. Though when the EDA stipend—$4,299 per year now, $4,385 starting Jan. 1—is taken into account, council members currently make about 24 percent more than their peers.

SLP Council Votes to Raise their EDA Salary by 2 Percent

St. Louis Park Council Considers Raising Its Salary by 2 Percent