By Philip Haldiman
Twitter: @PhilipHaldiman

The maximum amount of time a person can serve as mayor in Peoria could change from two to three terms.

Each term is four years.

Conversely, council members may serve up to three consecutive 4-year terms, according to the city charter.

“We are discussing whether it would make sense to pursue an amendment to the city charter to change the mayor’s terms from two to three to make it consistent with that of council members,” City Attorney Vanessa Hickman said.

The city is considering this and other changes, such as partial terms and cost of living adjustments for council members, that must be amended to the city charter.

Ms. Hickman said prior to 2012 there were no term limits for council members.

Final consideration for this proposal would go before the voters in November 2020 and the change to the charter, if approved by the voters, would begin in 2023, with the city’s next mayor.

Councilman Michael Finn said it makes sense the mayor’s term limit be the same as council members.

“I’ve never understood why it was different, aside from a political issue. But they should be the same for mayor and council,” he said.

The council is also looking to change the language in the city charter so that a partial term would not count as a term.

“We don’t want to penalize people for stepping in to fill a term and stepping in to fill a need for the city,” Councilwoman Bridget Binsbacher said.

Changing the language will also provide consistency between the mayor and council regarding partial terms, Ms. Hickman said.

“The language about mayor terms should be cleaned up. It is definitely subject to interpretation,” she said.

Lastly, the city is considering adding a “reasonable, automatic cost of living adjustment” for mayor and council members.

The Citizens Commission on Salaries is tasked with reviewing and adjusting pay commensurate with duties and responsibilities of the mayor and council. This would not change, and there would be no change to the current requirement that a raise recommended by the Citizens Commission on Salaries of 5.1% or more would go to the voters.

However, the proposed COLA would be an annual automatic adjustment to council salaries to account for inflation based on a national index with a cap.

City Manager Jeff Tyne said the proposed increase would be lower than city of Peoria employees and other pubic sector employees.

“To be clear, we look very closely each year at employee compensation for a number of different factors, of which we look at the cost of living as one of those major points,” he said.

“If this were to be applied, it would likely be lower than what we have seen historically as far as compensation increases in the public sector throughout the entire Valley, not just Peoria.”

A 5% raise for the mayor and city council was approved last year. Effective this year, the mayor’s salary is $34,549, and a council member’s salary is $23,033.

No changes will be made without further discussion between city staff, the Charter Review Committee and a public comment period.

All three proposals were discussed during a public city council study session, Oct. 2, and must be eventually approved by voters.

“We are at the very beginning of discussions related to charter amendments and the study session was solely for the purpose of exploring concepts,” Ms. Hickman said.

“These concepts will be refined through further direction of the mayor and council, analysis by the Charter Review Committee and city staff and public input.”

Philip Haldiman can be reached at 623-876-3697, phaldiman@newszap.com, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.