Earlier this year, the Brooklyn Park City Council voted in favor of raising the annual mayoral salary from $21,995 to $50,000 beginning in 2027 \u2014 but the proposal was tabled upon its second reading. Months later, the council has approved a less substantial increase for the mayoral role and a moderate raise for council members that will take effect in January.<\/p>\n
At a Sept. 14 meeting, City Manager Jay Stroebel brought forward a proposal to implement a $28,800 salary for the mayor and a $13,500 salary for all six members of the council. A built-in annual cost-of-living adjustment was also included in the ordinance amendment, which was shaped by input from the Brooklyn Park Charter Commission, city staff and the council itself.<\/p>\n
The ordinance passed with a 6-0 vote. Mayor Hollies Winston, who is up for reelection this fall, was present for the rest of the meeting but recused himself from the salary discussion. He explained the decision before exiting council chambers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my perspective, there’s a potential bias, because I could financially benefit from this,\u201d Winston said. \u201cBecause of the [election], and because of the political nature of this, there’s also incentive to come to another decision that might be harmful to the city. So, I think because of those potential biases, it makes sense for me to recuse myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Stroebel, the $28,800 figure is based on the Brooklyn Park mayor\u2019s salary in 2002 adjusted for inflation. He said the updated council member salary is not tied to an inflation adjustment, but rather the \u201caverage wage within Brooklyn Park\u201d applied to the estimated 30 hours of council-related work per month.<\/p>\n
The new salaries represents a 30.9% increase for the mayoral role and 7.3% increase for the role of council member.<\/p>\n
Because the raises were approved before the November election, the additional mayor and council member pay will be incorporated into the 2027 budget.<\/p>\n
Decision delays<\/p>\n
Pay raises for both the mayor and council members were proposed by the Brooklyn Park Charter Commission last year and slated for council consideration in June 2025. Stroebel and the council have both cited the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, as the reason the discussion was initially delayed.<\/p>\n
The Charter Commission\u2019s 2025 recommendation would have implemented a $23,100 salary for the mayoral role, a 5% increase, effective in 2027. The commission also suggested the $12,578 annual council member salary be raised by 3% in the same year.<\/p>\n
When the topic was brought back for consideration this April, Council Member Christian Eriksen suggested a $50,000 mayoral salary, which he argued would better recognize the time commitment related to the mayoral role and lessen the financial barrier for residents who may want to run for the position.<\/p>\n
An ordinance amendment was drafted based on Eriksen\u2019s suggestion. The first reading passed 4-0 \u2014 with council members Nichole Klonowski, Tony McGarvey, Amanda Cheng Xiong and Eriksen all voting in favor of the $50,000 mayoral salary.<\/p>\n
Winston abstained from the vote, as did council members Shelle Page and Maria Tran. Page and Winston went on to win the Aug. 11 mayoral primary and will face off in the general election.<\/p>\n
Once the $50,000 raise was tabled, the city established a working group to determine how much Brooklyn Park elected officials should be paid moving forward. The Charter Commission withdrew its previous recommendations for 3% and 5% respective raises, noting that both the mayor and council members should still be paid more but no longer specified dollar amounts.<\/p>\n
Pay raise process<\/p>\n
The council has the authority to adjust its wages through the city charter, the city\u2019s primary governing document. The Charter Commission, whose members are appointed by a Hennepin County judge, was tasked with reviewing salaries and making a recommendation to the council.<\/p>\n
The last increases to mayor and council salaries were approved in 2022, with the mayor\u2019s salary increasing from $17,796 to $21,355 for 2023 and an additional 3% increase for 2024. Council salaries increased by 3% annually in 2023 and 2024, and are currently sitting at $12,578.<\/p>\n
McGarvey and Xiong were elected to serve through 2028, meaning they will earn the updated salary for the remaining two years of their current terms. Page is also elected through 2028, but her new salary will depend on whether or not she wins the mayoral election.<\/p>\n
Winston, Eriksen, Klonowski and Tran were elected through 2026, so with pay raises approved, they will only earn more if they successfully run for reelection. Tran opted out of a re-election campaign in her West District in favor of the mayoral race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, the Brooklyn Park City Council voted in favor of raising the annual mayoral salary from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,5796,111202,113006,1092,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-349464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brooklyn-park","tag-brooklyn-park-city-council","tag-brooklyn-park-mayor","tag-mayor","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}