South Salt Lake resident wants to stop mayor and City Council from awarding themselves raises

SALT LAKE CITY — Mayor Cherie Wood of South Salt Lake City is now earning $136,224 per year, up from last year’s wage of $81,644 — a 67% increase. A resident of the city wants the question of pay raises for city leaders put before the voters.

Cherie Wood joins KSL NewsRadio on April 20th to discuss her controversial pay raise.

South Salt Lake resident Tim Webb joins KSL NewsRadio’s Debbie Dujanovic. He said he tried to have the city put the decision on raises on the November ballot.

Let residents decide raises for city officials

The city attorney “had denied it,” he said. “Based on their explanation that they gave on a technicality, we found that it was pretty questionable their reasoning, so we actually filed with the Supreme Court [Monday] for recourse.”

“You don’t have any idea how they came to $136,000 a year for the mayor of South Salt Lake,” Debbie asked.

“I want to put it into perspective. So the [South Salt Lake] mayor is now paid five times the compensation as the mayor of Sandy on a per-person basis,” Webb said.

In 2022, the population of the South Salt Lake was 26,506, according to World Population Review.

Residents seek referendum after South Salt Lake Council changes rule to raise its pay

Top 5 taxing cities in Utah

According to the Utah Taxpayers Association, these five cities raise the most revenue from taxes and fees per capita:

Salt Lake City’s revenue per capita increased $94 from the prior year. South Salt Lake increased by $46 and American Fork increased by $129 over FY 2018. On average, Utah cities collected $668.27 per capita in taxes and fees.

South Salt Lake raises

The South Salt Lake City Council on March 23 passed an ordinance that dissolved the commission whose job it was to study the salary and benefits for full-time mayors and part-time city councilors in Utah cities.

The compensation commission comprised “three mayor-appointed residents and one council-appointed resident.”

The City Council concluded the compensation commission “has not produced information helpful to informing the City Council in regard to compensation questions.”

The council members previously made $946 per month or $11,352 per year. The raise increased their yearly salary to $17,431, which some council members said is comparable to the pay of surrounding city councils. They also approved the South Salt Lake raises be retroactive to the start of the year, according to KSL.com.

———————–

Dave & Dujanovic can be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app, as well as Apple Podcasts and Google Play. 

Read more:

• South Salt Lake Mayor says resources are available for those seeking shelter.
• South Salt Lake Police chief wants more staff to work with citizens review board