City, county officials take pay cut? Law says no

Despite Gov. Tim Pawlenty's call for a local government salary freeze, there's one pay raise that city councils and some county boards can't undo right now -- their own.

State law prohibits it.

City councils and the Hennepin County Board are barred from raising or lowering their pay rates in mid-term. They'd have to wait until after the next elections for a salary cut to take effect.

Despite the law, the Hennepin County Board plans to vote on freezing next year's pay at this year's level, forgoing a scheduled pay increase it approved last year before the election.

The action has bipartisan backing, said Chairman Mike Opat, even though the board's legal adviser has said state law prevents undoing the increase.

"It's a risk worth taking," Opat said. "The statutes that govern us are sometimes obsolete."

He said the commissioners can get around the statute by voluntarily returning the raises.

The scheduled 3.4 percent increase would push the salaries of members of the state's highest-paid county board in the state's most populous county to slightly more than $100,000 per year. Ramsey County commissioners approved a 3 percent increase to $82,400 for 2009. They haven't discussed publicly any possible changes.

For most county boards, previously approved salary increases can be rescinded, but the changes can't take effect until the following year. In Hennepin County, however, salary changes by law must be made before a general election, to take effect the following year. There's not another commissioner election until 2010.

City councils in Minnesota also must wait until after an election for a salary change to take effect, meaning 2011 for most cities. For Minneapolis, the law is more specific in stating that salaries "shall not be increased or diminished" during a current term. But unlike the Hennepin board, the Minneapolis council can wait until just after an election to approve the following term's pay increases for the council and mayor.

In 2005, pay raises for the council and mayor were approved a week before the end of that term. The council granted 2 percent increases for the first two years of the term, and tied its 2008 and 2009 raises to the average percentage salary increase, including pay step increases, granted in union contracts approved the previous year. That amounted to a 2.5 percent raise for this year.

The change pushed council pay to $76,482 and the mayor's pay to $100,481 this year. Paul Ostrow, the council's budget chair, has raised the possibility of reopening union contracts to address looming state budget cuts proposed by Pawlenty. That raises the question of whether the council's raise would shrink if unions agreed to modify previously negotiated pay increases.

St. Paul officials said they're not aware of any limits on raising their pay. Mayor Chris Coleman has said he'll pass up a 2009 increase. The City Council hasn't taken an official position yet.