North Huntingdon commissioners to debate adjusting their salaries

The North Huntingdon commissioners are planning to debate next week whether to raise their $4,375 annual pay for the first time in 28 years, cut it to less than one-third or keep it at the status quo.

The board this week voted 5-2 to discuss the salaries Wednesday, Feb. 15, about three months before the May 16 primary in which the seats held by Commissioners Virginia Stump, Jason Atwood, Ronald Zona and Eric Gass are up for election.

Atwood, Stump, Zona, Gass and Lyndsay Wengrzyn voted to consider adjusting the salaries, while Zachary Haigis and Richard Gray opposed the idea.

Wengrzyn, who made the motion, said she favors a pay raise for the seven board members, although she did not recommend a specific amount. Not only have the commissioners not had a pay raise in 28 years, but the annual compensation has increased by only $875 in 38 years, Wengrzyn said.

No commissioner is permitted to raise their pay during their current term in office, said Harry Faulk, township manager.

The commissioners whose term expires at the end of this year could receive a pay raise if they win reelection in November, Faulk said. Commissioners whose term expires in 2025 would have to wait until the following year to receive a pay raise, if they still are in office.

With the responsibility for overseeing a municipality with a $14 million budget, “I don’t think it is out of line” to vote against a salary cut, as suggested by Atwood.

Atwood proposed reducing the compensation to $1,200, saying that they should be fiscally conservative and cutting their own salaries is “the place we should start first.”

By lowering the pay to $1,200, the salary for North Huntingdon’s commissioners would be comparable to that paid to the seven members of Murrysville council, Atwood said. The township is comparable to Murrysville, he said.

Gass however, said he is opposed to cutting the compensation because he donates a lot of his township pay to people within the 7th Ward, which he represents.

“It will impact them,” Gass said.

Atwood said he also donates money from his township salary.

While the commissioners are expected to discuss adjusting their salaries, Atwood’s proposal to consider limiting commissioners to serving a maximum of two terms will not be on the agenda.

North Huntingdon is a First Class Township, and the code governing it does not permit a municipality to set term limits on its commissioners, said Bruce Dice, township solicitor.

The state General Assembly would have to amend the First Class Township Code for North Huntingdon to set term limits for its elected officials, said Amy Sturges, deputy executive director for advocacy for the Pennsylvania Municipal League, a Harrisburg-based organization.

Rather than trying to persuade state legislators to amend the code, Dice said the township would be able to institute term limits by adopting a Home Rule charter, but that is a long process.