“Alright guys, I’m more than willing to admit I got this salary decision wrong,” the mayor posted on Facebook. “As a showing of good faith, I’m going to cut my salary to below the lowest of the mayors of the Big Five cities in Utah and return the excess I’ve received so far,” he continued.
“Our idea was to try something new and only do one small increase following an election instead of annual salary increases and bonuses that average about 6 percent a year,” he explained. “We projected it would save approximately $100k in annual salary from just the mayor’s office alone.”
Bradburn received plenty of responses after his Facebook post. Some thanked him for being honest, other said the salary raise wasn’t their concern. It was the fact that he went back on a campaign promise.
As the Alliance for a Better Utah pointed out, his campaign website says he will ” eliminate salary increases for the Mayor’s Office” and “Will eliminate all bonuses for the Mayor’s Office and appointees, and will give the money to our front-line workers who deserve it more”.
The Alliance responded to Bradburn’s apology Friday. “We still maintain that raising and lowering of salaries should be done by the City Council, not by the person who actually receives the salary,” they said. “Mayor Bradburn has also not announced how much this salary actually will be. We still call on the Sandy City Council to look into these actions and pass a city ordinance preventing it from occurring in the future.”
Mayor Bradburn said the plan was to roll out the idea to City Council in a few weeks as part of the budget presentation.
Article by Kierra Dotson at Good 4 Utah found here.
