Wichita’s mayor tried to turn down a pay raise. This was the City Council’s response

The Wichita City Council blocked Wichita Mayor Lily Wu from fulfilling one of her campaign promises — not accepting any pay raises.

The council’s and mayor’s salaries are bundled with other non-union city employees’ annual salaries, although the city’s agenda report did not explicitly say that the mayor and council members would be voting on their own raises, or what their salaries are.

They were all set to receive a 4% raise starting next year. Council members currently make $55,755 a year. That will increase to $57,985.20 in 2025.

As the council complimented city staff on their roles in running the city and prepared to approve the raises during a City Council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Wu stepped in.

Wu — whose salary is $125,970 a year — moved to exclude the mayor’s salary from the wage increases.

Her motion failed because no one on the council would second it — a requirement under the city’s rules for an item to be voted on.

She then moved to exclude the entire council’s salaries from the wage increase, a suggested amendment by council member Becky Tuttle. Council members make less than half as much money as the mayor. That, too, failed for lack of a second.

“I think that it should either be all staff, because we are part of staff, or it should be all seven of us,” Tuttle said. “I think the optics of only one and not seven is not what the message of unity and leadership we want to portray in the community. That’s just my opinion.”

Wu pushed back on Tuttle.

“I respect the city of Wichita’s staff, but I am not a Wichita staff member,” Wu said. “I belong to the citizens of Wichita, and that is why I have said from the bench that my job is to question staff. My job is not to disrespect staff. It is to question staff. ... So, again, I will be voting not in favor of this item and then I will ask, I guess, the city manager how I can be exempt by myself so that my pay will not increase by 4 percent.”

Tuttle said she plans to donate her raise.

“I just want to go on the record that, you know, I would be willing to not take a pay increase, but by voting to not take a pay increase, I am putting that staff don’t get a pay increase,” Tuttle said. “And so I will dedicate my increase in the community in some meaningful way for me and my family, but I will be absolutely supportive of voting for this today ... to let staff know how much they’re appreciated.”

Council member J.V. Johnston said he doesn’t need the raise but that he believes the council and mayor deserve more money.

“I do think that, overall, the pay should be increased for council members,” Johnston said, “to get more people to be able to run. My view is it’s not worth the money, the time and stress we put in. It’s not worth it. And I think we need some good people to run. I think the pay should be increased, so I’ll be voting for this. I don’t need the money, but I know other people here do.”

Council member Brandon Johnson said he supports higher pay for council members, too, and could not support a move to cut council pay.

“My kids are very expensive,” Johnson said. “And the 60 to 70 hours a week I work here with the pay that we receive, I will not be supporting that.”

“I respect that you don’t want to take a raise,” Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard said to Wu. “And I wish I was in a position to do that, honestly, but I’m not.”

Ballard expressed discomfort that Wu hadn’t given the council a heads-up about her proposal.

“Mayor, this is a little uncomfortable,” Ballard said. “I wish that if this was a route that you were considering — just kind of throwing this at us at the bench is a little uncomfortable. I respect how you feel. ... So maybe next time, if you feel comfortable talking to us prior to, so it doesn’t kind of catch us off guard, especially about an item like this.”

Council member Mike Hoheisel said, “A couple of thousands of dollars is no reason to vote against the pay raise for all the hard-working employees here.”

“I’m not going to judge what anyone does with their own money,” Hoheisel said. “Donate it to charity, or whatever council member Tuttle has said as well. It’s just, inflation has gone up so much over the past three years ... we just need to make sure that we pay our employees what they deserve, or else they will be leaving us for better opportunities.”

Wu was the only council member to vote against pay adjustments for the city’s non-union employees. It bumped Wu’s new annual salary to $131,008.80.

“I think you work really hard, you deserve it,” Johnston told Wu. “It’s not that much of an increase. It’s well-deserved. I know where you’re trying to go, I just think you deserve it.”

Wu said she supports employees but that she was bound by a campaign promise.

“I made a promise a year ago that I was not going to take a pay increase,” Wu said. “So I’m just following through with my promise to this community. And so that’s why ... I’m voting not in the affirmative, because this still takes into account the mayor of Wichita getting a pay increase, which then would mean that I lied, and I would not want that to be my record.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 4:43 PM.