City Council Salary Cut Proposal Goes Down in Flames

A proposal by Simpsonville Mayor Perry Eichor to slash City Council salaries by 50 percent died Tuesday night when no other Council members would second the mayor's motion.

Eichor has said, among other things, salary cuts would save the city money and make it easier for more people to run for office, since candidates must pay a filing fee that amounts to five percent of the salary of the position they are seeking. Currently, in addition to travel stipends and benefits such as health and retirement, the salaries for the mayor, mayor pro tem, and Council members are $9,600, $7,000, and $6,000 respectively.

Eichor said he had originally wanted to eliminate Council salaries altogether, but settled for slashing them in half.

"For a long time I've had a feeling that public service should not be rewarded by salary," Eichor said. If the measure had made it to a vote and passed, it would have taken effect after the next general election.

Council member Dr. Julius Wellborn said when he was elected three years ago he originally said he would serve without pay, but later learned he could not do that. Instead, he said, he has donated nearly all of his salary each year to charity.

Council member Geneva Lawrence noted that fellow member Brown Garrett gives back a lot of his salary to charity, as does she and other Council members.

"People may not think what I do is important, but I clean up stray cats in your neighborhoods in Simpsonville and that runs me to the tune of between $3,000 to $4,000 a year," Lawrence said. "Being on Social Security… that's kind of tough. So that salary really goes to help and I feel that it goes back into the city."

Council member Sylvia Lockaby said she donates part of her salary as well, "though I'm not going to tell you how much, because it's none of your business," she said jokingly. 

Two weeks ago when Eichor originally floated his plan, Lockaby and Lawrence made the argument that there was plenty of fluff in the budget that could be cut rather than salaries, if Eichor truly wanted to save the city money. And both women said they believed they earned their money, since a lot of their time is spent after hours with constituent service and dealing with the constant flood of phone calls and emails that come with the job.

In other Council news: The Council unanimously appointed Phyllis Long as the full-time City Clerk. Long had been acting in an interim basis since the recent departure of Lavada Galloway, who resigned to deal with family issues. In addition to the clerk's job, Long had also previously been named the city's new Human Resources Director, a position which also was previously held by Galloway.