Royston City Council, Mayor Approve Raise

The Royston City Council and Mayor have voted themselves a pay raise – the first one in ten years.

At their meeting Tuesday evening, the Council went over a comparison of what their members are paid a month compared to other Franklin County municipalities and what they found was a surprise.

According to the comparison, Royston City Council members and the Mayor David Jordan said they lowest paid government officials in the county.

“You have received a breakdown of salaries from everybody around us. In a way, I ‘m kind of shocked and surprised,” noted Mayor David Jordan. “We probably are the largest provider of services and probably receive the least amount of pay.”

Jordan noted that for called meetings, Royston City Council members and the mayor receive $50 per called meeting while other municipalities pay their council members as much as $200 per called meeting.

It was also pointed out that the Mayor of Lavonia is paid $1,000 a month and the Lavonia City Council members receive $400 a month.  Even the City of Canon council members and mayor, it was noted, receive a bigger salary than Royston.

Councilman Kenneth Roach then motioned to raise the pay to $400 for council members, $500 a month for the mayor protem and $600 a month for the mayor.

“My comment would be that after looking at what our neighboring communities are doing, it’s obvious that we couldn’t match the best,” noted councilman Wayne Braswell. “I like the concept of getting off the bottom and the council getting one dollar figure, the mayor protem getting a little more and the mayor getting more. The responsibities increase as you go up that line.”

Braswell said he liked the dollar amount suggested by councilman Roach.

The council then voted unanimously to pass a prepared resolution that would allow for the pay raise.

The increase will also require a budget amendment and will go into effect on January 1, 2016.