Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey calls for action with her salary
Nobody would dispute the fact that Janice Winfrey, the city clerk of Detroit, has plenty on her schedule.
Winfrey oversees a $17 million budget, 200 full- and part-time personnel, and 10,000 poll workers.
“I’m over 500 precincts. Plus, I have a hundred absentee voter counting boards. Yet, with 36 precincts, Southfield pays their city clerk over $100,000. It’s insulting,” Winfrey told WXYZ in a report.
Winfrey’s salary is only $89,546.
Recently, Winfrey and the members of the Detroit City Council were asked to submit recommendations for pay raises to the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Committee, according to the report.
The council members who agreed to this request are Scott Benson, Fred Durhal III, Mary Waters, Gabriela Santiago-Romero, and Angela Calloway. Winfrey joined the chorus of people endorsing the raises in the average wage.
“We believe a reasonable pay increase for City Council members in the amount of $115,000.00 and the Council President in the amount of $125,000.00 would be more appropriately reflective of the members who expend an average of 80 hours of service per week for an hourly rate of $27.64 per hour and $30.04 respectively, at a time where an individual needs approximately $32 per hour for a single headed household of four to move above the A.L.I.C.E. threshold for household stability,” they wrote to the committee according to WXYZ.
The memo added, “In addition, we urge the EOCC to increase the compensation for the Detroit City Clerk to $150,000.”
According to a human resources study, the municipal clerk in Milwaukee earns $107,789 annually, whereas the city clerk in Columbus, Ohio earns $175,000.
According to reports, the Ann Arbor municipal clerk earns $122,000 per year.
“We just want to ensure that we are compensated just like everyone else around the country,” Councilman Fred Durhal III told WXYZ in an interview. “The current salary from members of Detroit City Council was $89,545 a year.”
Contrast that to the $135,000 annual compensation paid to Seattle city council members.
Read the full story here.