Bardstown City Council takes first steps to double the pay of city’s next mayor

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 — The Bardstown City Council discussed and overwhelmingly approved first reading of a measure to double the monthly pay of the mayor of Bardstown.

The city’s mayor currently is paid $2,500 a month. The mayor’s pay has been adjusted just once in the past 24 years, in 2018, Mayor Dick Heaton told the council.

For his first five years as mayor, Heaton was paid $18,000 a year. The second five years he was paid $30,000 per year, for an annual average of $24,000.

State law maintains that a mayor of a city the size of Bardstown can only be changed during an election year. The new pay rate doesn’t apply to the existing mayor, City Attorney Audrey Haydon noted. The higher pay applies to the next mayor who is sworn-in to serve starting January 2023.

Councilman David Dones called the pay increase “a no-brainer” that was “way overdue.”

Councilman and former Mayor Bill Sheckles said serving as mayor was really a 24/7 job.

Heaton said the pay increase, which equates to a $60,000 annual salary, was also a move that will insure that future mayors will be fairly compensated for the time it takes to serve as mayor.

The ordinance also ties the mayor’s pay to annual increases calculated using the consumer price index.

2022-23 CITY BUDGET. The council spent considerable time at this meeting taking a close examination of the proposed 2022-23 General Fund section of the city’s new budget.

The council will review the rest of the budget later this month and then hold a formal budget presentation at a special-called meeting in late May. The council will hold the final readings in June to have the new budget approved prior to the start of the new Fiscal Year that begins July 1, 2022.

In other business, the council:

— approved a bid of $48,499 from Martins Flooring Co. to replace the gym flooring at the Rec Center gym on Xavier Drive.

— approved an updated list of job descriptions in a municipal order following the final approval of the city’s classification and compensation plan that sets out pay scales and pay ranges for city employees.

— approved a resolution to allow Mayor Dick Heaton to sign documents for the city’s participation in the state road aid program. The city will receive $259,406.56 as its share of the fuel tax money that is set aside for local road repair and maintenance.

— approved a mobile food vendor application from Dana Compton for her food truck, Food for the Soul.

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