Charlottesville City Council to vote Monday on salary increase

Charlottesville City Council is moving fast to take advantage of a new Virginia law that allows them to substantially increase the amount of money a person is paid to serve as a legislator. 

There will be a public hearing Monday night on an increase in the annual salary for a City Councilor from $18,000 to $34,000. That’s an 88.9 percent increase. The salary for the Mayor would go up from $20,000 to $37,000, an 85 percent increase. 

Delegate Katrina Callsen (D-54) carried the legislation that updated the section of Virginia code that sets the maximum salaries for those elected to make decisions for cities. For the first time, there’s also a provision that allows the rate to be increased due to an inflation factor not to exceed five percent.

“The legislation was part of the Charlottesville legislative agenda for the 2024 session and was also a priority of the Virginia Municipal League and the Virginia First Cities Coalition,” Callsen said in an email. 

The final version of the legislation passed the Senate 29-10 and the House of Delegates 67 to 30. The legislation does not apply to salaries of those elected to a county Board of Supervisors. 

The amounts set by the state are determined by population size. The Mayor in cities larger than 260,000 people can be paid up to $56,000 while those in cities with fewer than 15,000 can be paid $21,000 a year. 

To put the proposed salaries in perspective, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has calculated the area median income for Charlottesville at $124,200. Take a look at their website for further breakdowns of that metric. 

Another important detail can be seen in the public notice that appeared in the July 27, 2024 edition of the Charlottesville Daily Progress. 

“The proposed the salary increases would not take effect until the July 1 following the next general election for members of City Council, which would be July 1, 2026,” reads the notice. 

The grammatical errors are present in the notice which can be viewed on a website maintained by the Virginia Press Association called Public Notice. 

Next year the Council seats currently held by Brian Pinkston and Juandiego Wade will expire. The 2023 general election was uncontested and Democrats Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook were elected without opposition. 

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