Council votes 4-3 to approve 2025 city budget

by Dan Holland

Dec. 16 work session and city council meeting

Members of Broadview Heights City Council during a Dec. 16 meeting cast a 4-3 vote to pass an ordinance to make appropriations for current expenses and other expenditures for 2025 following a third and final public reading. 

The split vote followed a heated discussion among councilmembers and officials involving the manner in which the salaries of the mayor, police chief and fire chief are calculated.

Due to the vote falling short of a two-thirds supermajority necessary for the measure to go into effect shortly after signing, the ordinance will not take effect for 30 days, commencing on Jan. 16, which could leave the city’s residents without any city services for the first two weeks of 2025.

Councilmembers Glenn Goodwin, Joe Price and Brian Dunlap voted against the ordinance. 

During a work session prior to the regular meeting, Goodwin said he would like to see an amendment made to the 2025 budget regarding pay raises for the mayor. “I’m looking at it from the moral standpoint that somebody would be able to create their own raise percentage, and I just don’t think it’s right, and I think it needs to be changed,” he said. “I think because of that, some of our salaries may be a little bit higher than the surrounding communities for sure.”

Law Director Vince Ruffa said that, from a legal perspective, a salary being paid to a public official cannot be changed after the fact; changes can only be applied to the next term to be served.

Price asked Ruffa if he would look into the legality of making a change in salary during the years following the first year served in office by a mayor, which Ruffa agreed to review.

Goodwin asked if an amendment could be made to the budget that would not permit an increase of the salaries of the mayor, police chief and fire chief. An ordinance enacted in 2016 stipulates that the mayor must be paid 5% more than the higher paid of the two chiefs, so as to remain the city’s highest-paid official.

According to public records, Mayor Sam Alai’s salary was $141,648 in 2024, with both chiefs earning $134,903.

Ward 2 council representative Brian Wolf likened passage of the budget and raises to the chiefs to comparing apples with oranges. “It seems like [Goodwin] wants to stop the raises through the budget, versus the codified that’s already in place; but it’s two different things,” he said. “You can’t freeze the budget, because the codified says we still have to pay whatever we have to pay, correct?”

City Finance Director David Pfaff concurred with Wolf’s statement. “That is correct; the budget has nothing to do with what people make,” he said. “The ordinances are what sets their pay; not the budget.” 

“I just think at this point, we need to step back and look at the salaries,” said Goodwin. “I just know that the way we have it coupled right now, there’s no incentive here in that the mayor basically creates his own increase by giving an increase to the chiefs.”

“The mayor does not create his own increase; that’s not how it works,” Ruffa responded. “What happens is; the chiefs get a certain percentage over what the sergeants make, in the police case, and what the assistant chief makes in the fire case.”

Pfaff added that the police chief and fire chief’s salaries are based on union negotiations, which then have to be approved by city council. He added that the mayor is not involved in those negotiations.

Dunlap had voiced concerns on the issue during a Nov. 25 special council meeting, at which a first reading-only of the ordinance was read, saying he would not vote for any legislation that automatically triggers a pay raise for an elected official.

During the Dec. 16 meeting, Dunlap said he agreed with Goodwin’s concerns. “I think that the two are tethered together, in my opinion, to the budget and to voting,” he said. “So, it gives a false impression that we’re saying that things can’t be tweaked. Even though they are two separate issues, they’re connected together.”

Price added that the ordinance passed in 2016, which tethers the salaries of the mayor and chiefs together, may have seemed appropriate at the time but may not have been the best decision, saying – at that time – that it could become a political football for the mayor.

“We’re going to push forward on the budget, and I don’t care how you guys want to vote,” said Council President Robert Boldt in bringing the work session discussion to a close. “But I will put on council to discuss the legalities of the mayor’s pay and what we’re going to do next year or next term, because that’s the fair thing to do.”

“I can’t pay anything for 30 days, and I can’t retroactively go back, so people will probably be working for free,” Pfaff said following the 4-3 vote.

Price asked if a temporary budget could be brought forward. Goodwin asked if a quarterly budget could be approved.

“Hold on – you voted it down; there’s nothing we can do,” Boldt responded. “We need to bring legislation again. We shut down on January 1.”

In other action, council approved:

• An agreement with Stefanik Iosue & Associates, LLC for labor relations, human resources and management counseling services at a rate of $225 per hour.
• An agreement with Guttman Energy, Inc. for 2025 fuel purchases in the city for 2025.

A renewal agreement with BPI Information Systems for server maintenance at a cost of $2,613.