Raise proposed for Mt. Lebanon commissioners
A Mt. Lebanon commissioner who will not seek re-election is advocating on behalf of those who follow her.
Kelly Fraasch, whose second four-year term expires at the end of 2019, has proposed a measure to raise annual salaries for the commissioners from $3,500, as established in 1993, to $5,000.
“It will not affect me,” she told fellow commissioners during their Jan. 22 discussion meeting. “It won’t affect any of us if we’re not here in five years. But I do think it’s important.”
Mt. Lebanon’s home rule charter states “that no ordinance changing such salary shall become effective for at least four years after the effective date of any such ordinance.”
Fraasch said the extra amount could serve as incentive for more people with good qualifications to run for the office, especially women whose households might be on tight budgets. She also cited changes over the years in time commitments for the elected officials.
“There’s a huge difference between what we do now, as a minimum, compared to what we did in 1993 as a commission,” she said.
For example, regular meetings were held only once a month during the summer, while the commission now meets twice every month. Also, commissioners at the time did not have to attend meetings as liaisons to municipal advisory boards.
“Email was not being used. There was a dedicated (worker) in the municipality for phone calls, and a staff person would pick them up. There were no cell phones, I’m sure, that commissioners were using on a regular basis at the time,” Fraasch said. “There were hardly community events, and now it seems like we have one weekly, if not every other week.”
She referred to her salary proposal for what breaks down to an extra $416.67 per month, and what would cost the municipality $7,500 more annually, as conservative.
“That was with me taking the middle ground of what it might cost a family for child care, parking and all of those things,” she said about some of the expenses a commissioner could incur in fulfilling his or her duties.
Fraasch provided detailed information to the other commissioners, including estimates of time commitments vs. compensation, and asked them to consider raising the salary.
“We’re not here to do things that are comfortable to us, but we are here to think about the future,” she said. “And if the future is to consider that we need to see more people run for office who are high-quality and may not have the same resources that all of us did when we came into this position, then I think we should consider that.”
Commissioner John Bendel commended her for bringing the issue to the table.
“I’m not sure that the change would make that much of a difference, in terms of the people who would seek to run for office,” he said. “I could be wrong about that. But I’m not sure it would move the needle all that much.”
Fraasch contended that it would.
“I think any little bit helps for a family who’s trying to figure it out,” she said.