FLINT, MI-- Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and members of the city council could be getting a raise soon.

The Local Officers Compensation Commission voted at a Feb. 8 meeting to increase council members’ current annual salary and customary benefits. Flint City Council received a memorandum about the vote Feb. 20.

Council members are given a 30-day grace period to introduce a resolution rejecting the raises with a two-thirds vote. If council doesn’t reject the resolution, it is adopted, according to the city’s charter.

Weaver’s salary would increase from $91,801 to $125,000 unless council rejects it.

City Council President and 6th Ward Councilman Herb Winfrey’s salary would increase from $20,855 to $23,572 and City Council Vice President and 7th Ward Councilwoman Monica Galloway’s salary would increase from $20,380 to $23,035. Regular council members’ $19,907 salary would increase to $22,500.

There remains confusion among those interviewed by The Flint Jounal-MLive about whether both sets of raises will go into effect March 22 -- 30 days after the Feb. 8 vote -- or if the date was reset on council raises when the compensation commission met again.

Flint City Clerk Inez Brown referred questions to the compensation commission’s chairperson, Loyst Fletcher, whom declined to comment.

First Ward Councilman Eric Mays said the March 15 meeting was to discuss benefits for council more thoroughly, which could have potentially restarted the 30-day grace period for council raises.

It would not have affected the mayor’s potential raise, however. Mays said Weaver’s raise should go into effect on March 22 unless it’s rejected by city council in a special meeting before Friday.

“I don’t think there are enough votes to reject her raise,” Mays said. “I wouldn’t vote to reject it."

As for council raises, Mays said he would vote to reject them because it isn’t enough. He contends the grace period was, in fact, reset at the March 15 meeting.

“Our 30-day period restarted when they met on Friday,” Mays said. "I would vote to reject our determination and sending them back to the drawing board. My position is seeing council’s salary increase to $28,000 and working full-time.”

Mays said he’s not trying to increase anyone’s pay, but rather fix the salaries for the position that were broken when emergency managers stepped in to address Flint’s financial crisis nearly a decade ago. Pay and benefits for the mayor and all nine city council members were eliminated by emergency managers in 2011.

In April 2013, the emergency manager allowed Flint’s mayor and city council to have some of their powers restored and part of their pay re-instituted.

Pay for the mayor increased from $55,000 to $82,500 while the pay for each council member rose from $7,000 annually to $10,500 on June 20, 2014 when former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley signed a resolution allowing the raises.

In April 2015 former Emergency Manager Jerry Ambrose restored the mayor’s salary to $91,801. He also restored $20,856 for the council president, $20,381 for the vice president and $19,907 for the other seven council members.

The Flint Local Officers Compensation Commission is comprised of seven members registered to vote in Flint and appointed by the mayor. City council is responsible for approving the appointments.

Individuals or businesses contracted to do work with the city in the past year cannot be appointed or maintain membership on the commission. Family members or employees of the legislative, judicial or executive branch of government are not allowed on the commission.

When filing a determination of salary increases with the city clerk, the commission is required to report the total compensation of similar positions in cities of similar population.

Similarly, the city of Ann Arbor received raises after a resolution to reject its local officers compensation commission’s determination failed with a city council 6-5 vote in 2017. The city’s population is 121,477 compared to Flint’s population of 94,144, according to census data.

Salaries for Ann Arbor City Council members, $16,232, and mayor, $43,285, increased by 2.2 percent for the next two years after the vote. It should be noted that Ann Arbor has a weak-mayor form of government with a full-time city administrator. Flint has a strong-mayor form of government. Comparatively, council members in Livonia, with a population of 96,942, have a $17,270 salary. City council members in Westland, with a population of 84,094, have a salary of $16,251, according to data complied by the Ann Arbor Local Officers Compensation Commission in 2017.

Mays said he expects city council to discuss Flint’s Local Officers Compensation Commission’s determination for council raises at its Thursday, March 21 committee meetings.