Decision on full-time mayor postponed until January 2011

— Timing is everything when it comes to the decision of whether or not Decatur will have a fulltime mayor.

At Monday’s city council meeting, four council members — Linda Martin, Raegina Davis, David Sutton and Sandy Duncan — voted for a motion to table the decision until January. Two council members — James Jessen and Trip Lapham — voted against the motion to table.

Martin and Davis said they were troubled by the timing of the decision. Mayor Bill Montgomery proposed changing the mayor’s position from part-time to fulltime at the July meeting and council members asked for a month to talk to the citizens in their wards before deciding the matter.

The filing period for candidates wishing to run for mayor is Aug. 4 through noon on Aug. 24. If the decision regarding the mayoral position would have been made on Monday night, candidates would have had 15 days to decide if they wished to run for a full-time position or not.

“My feeling is there is not enough time before the elections ... I’m not necessarily against it. The timing is what I do not think is right,” Martin said.

“The timing is an issue for me,” Davis said, explaining that she felt two weeks is not enough time to make a lifechanging decision like running for the position of fulltime mayor. Davis suggested that last January would have been a more appropriate time to begin discussing the change.

City attorney Tom Smith said the council could legally vote to increase the mayor’s salary at any time, but it could only legally decrease the salary before an election so that all the candidates would be aware of the change.

After the meeting, Lapham and Jessen said they voted no to the motion because they felt the issue should have been addressed right then and there.

Lapham said he felt decision should be made before the filing period for the election is over so that all the candidates would know what they were getting into. He pointed out that if the decision were made Monday, it would leave candidates two weeks before the filing period was over.

“We could have talked about it and made a decision tonight,” he said.

Jessen echoed his reasoning and said the decision should have been made before the election filing period was over.

“We should have addressed it tonight rather than putting it off for January,” he said.

If the council decides in January to have a full-time mayor, it will not be a first for Decatur.

City administrative assistant Kim Wilkins said she received a surprising number of calls from longtime residents who told her Decatur always had a full-time mayor. Wilkins did some research and found payrolls from the 1960s that show the mayor was paid about $12,000 a year plus $800 for expenses — almost exactly what the mayor is currently paid.

That all changed when Jack Wilmoth took office. Wilmoth volunteered to serve as mayor for $5,000 a year and changed the position to part-time because he was traveling internationally for his job. Ever since then, Decatur has had a part-time mayor.

Resident Pat Austin appeared before the council in support of a full timemayor’s position.

“You wouldn’t be setting in this building if you didn’t have a full-time mayor to get a grant to fix it up,” she said.

Montgomery said the city is changing and growing and needs a full-time mayor. A full-time mayor could attend meetings, handle grant applications, be on hand to make decisions and answer questions and serve as a backup to Wilkins and city utilities director James Boston, he said.

Wilkins said she has noticed cities with full-time mayors are able to do a lot more for the community.

“Don’t we want that for our community?” she said.

If the council were to vote to have a full-time mayor, the salary and job requirements would be up to the council to set. Both Gentry and Centerton have full-time mayors who get paid around $45,000 a year, and neither have specific job descriptions, according to Wilkins.

“I would think it would be better for the community to raise that salary because it would give someone more of a reason to want to help,” said Sutton.