MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW) – A battle over salary increases for City of Marion elected officials will continue into the final day of 2023.
In the last executive action of his tenure, Mayor Scott Schertzer this week issued vetoes of three ordinances proposing salary increases for the positions of auditor, law director, and mayor. The outgoing mayor cited in each memo accompanying the vetoes that approving salary increases for those offices now “would place an undo burden on the General Fund for the City of Marion at a time when the city is in dire financial distress with the lack of accountability from the current Auditor (Miranda) Meginness and former Auditor (Robert) Landon.”
However, in response to Schertzer’s vetoes, Marion City Council has scheduled a special meeting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 31 “for the purpose of discussing and overriding the mayor’s veto on upcoming salary increases approved by the city council specifically the mayor law director and auditor salaries.” Council members Mike Neff, 6th Ward; Karen Fosnaugh, 5th Ward; and Matthew Pollock, at-large – all Republicans – voted to schedule the meeting on Sunday.
City council approved increasing the auditor’s annual salary to $80,000 from its current amount of $64,900. In addition to his concerns about the “undo burden on the General Fund,” Schertzer cited what he and many members of city council perceived as the poor performance of the auditor’s office over the past four years as another reason for issuing the veto.
“The Auditor has failed to perform their duty for the past four years with the current Auditor (Miranda) Meginness and the former Auditor (Robert) Landon, the city is facing multiple fines, fees, and penalties directly due to the failure of the auditor to perform their duties,” Schertzer wrote in his veto memo. “To reward the gross neglect of duty by a pay increase would be a disservice to the citizens of the City of Marion.”
Per the terms of Ordinance 2019-066, the law director’s annual salary was scheduled to increase to $92,500, effective Jan. 1, 2024. However, city council voted to hike that proposed increase to $110,000, effective Jan. 1, 2024. In his veto of that proposal, Schertzer noted that, in his opinion, “the raise of nearly 20% (to $110,000) would be an exorbitant amount.”
Under the terms of Ordinance 2019-067, the annual salary for the mayor would be set at $75,000, effective Jan. 1, 2024, up from the current amount of $69,900. City council proposed increasing the mayor’s salary to $110,000, but then approved an amended amount of $90,000, which Schertzer vetoed. In his memo accompanying the veto, Schertzer noted that, like the proposed increase for the law director, “the raise of 20% (for the mayor’s salary) would be an exorbitant amount.”
Schertzer did sign the ordinance approving salary increases for the city’s treasurer, city council president, and members of city council. The new annual salary amount for each of those positions will be $12,000, up from the current amount of $9,000. The increases will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, according to the ordinance.
Originally, the Finance Committee had proposed increasing the annual salary for each of those positions to $20,000; however, city council amended the ordinance to lower the amount to $12,000 when it met on Dec. 19.
Earlier this year, Councilman Jason Schaber, 3rd Ward, chairman of the city’s Finance Committee, proposed the pay increases for elected officials because he believed that higher pay would possibly attract more qualified candidates to run for public office in Marion.
However, Schaber said his effort “was turned into a political football” by some members of city council. He said if city council’s effort to override Schertzer’s vetoes fails on Sunday, he will not address the issue again in the new term. Schaber said he has no plans to attend Sunday’s special city council meeting.
“I will not attend because the appearance of calling a meeting at 1 p.m. on a Sunday, the last day of a term, just to give yourself a raise looks sleazy at best,” Schaber said. “I believe the mayor in his veto statement made valid reason why these salaries should not be passed. And I agree. The original intent (was for) all increases start in 2026 and 2028 because our financial footing is a mess. Effective dates were changed for political reasons, in my opinion.
“I could have gone along with an effective date of 2024 if the increases were not so large. I attempted to amend (the salary amounts) to what I thought was reasonable, and it failed.”
A special meeting and reorganizational meeting is scheduled at noon on Monday, Jan. 1 at Marion City Hall. All elected officials will be sworn in at that time. During the reorganizational meeting, city council is scheduled to approve resolutions electing a clerk of council, president pro tempore of city council, and clerk pro tempore of city council. The 2024 city budget will also be addressed.