Waterford selectmen will appeal finance board decision on elected officials' salaries
Waterford — The Board of Selectmen will ask members of the Representative Town Meeting to add raises for the town's elected officials, including them, back into the proposed 2016-17 budget.
The town's Board of Finance declined a request to add increases tied to the cost of living to the salaries of the eight elected officials, despite RTM approval for the raises in February.
The RTM typically approves cost-of-living raises for elected officials the summer before elections for the positions are held in November.
But because of an oversight, the RTM committee charged with setting the pay increases didn't meet until after the election.
The RTM didn't vote on the pay raises until February, too late for the adjustments to be included in the selectmen's 2016-17 budget proposal.
During a meeting last month, the Board of Selectmen voted to add the pay increases — which range from about $16 to almost $500 — back into the budget while it was being considered by the Board of Finance.
But the Board of Finance rejected that proposal, passing its own budget proposal without the pay increases to the RTM.
"It wasn’t in the budget that was presented to us, so we said 'no,'" Board of Finance member John "Bill" Sheehan said Tuesday.
"If the raises show up in next year’s budget, that's fine ... but I really have a hard time approving an increase in pay that was not approved prior to the person starting their term of office," he said.
"Even though it was only 0.5 percent."
The increases would include raises of less than $150 each for the two selectmen, town tax collector, treasurer and registrars of voters, a $421 increase for the town clerk and $498 for First Selectman Daniel Steward.
The RTM initially approved the salary increases, which are tied to the Consumer Price Index, at a meeting in February.
The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday 2-1 to appeal the Board of Finance decision.
Selectman Peter Davis, the board's only Democrat, voted against asking the RTM to reconsider putting the money in next year's budget.
"For me it was an issue of process," Davis said. "I don't understand the sense of urgency — it can wait."
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