ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Ballots in the city could look more like reading-comprehension tests this fall, with officials proposing raises and term limits for council members and the city’s controller.
That could put four more questions onto November ballots; voters are already expected to see a question about an alternative first-response program after council rejected that proposal June 15.
- Allentown City Council is proposing raises and term limits for its own members and the city controller
- Those measures would appear as four separate questions on November election ballots
- Only Allentown voters have authority to change salaries and impose term limits on council and the controller
Council members last week introduced bills to more than double their own salaries and provide a significant raise for the controller’s office, currently held by Jeff Glazier.
If council approves the bills, the Lehigh County Board of Elections will place a separate question for each proposal onto general election ballots.
Council cannot raise salaries or impose term limits on its own members or the city controller; only voters have that authority under Allentown’s home-rule charter.
Seeking first raise in 26 years
Allentown voters in 1996 approved a home-rule charter that defines “the powers, structure, privileges, rights and duties of the municipal government,” as well as its limitations.
That charter set the salary for an Allentown City Council member at $6,140, with the council’s president earning about $500 more. It set the city controller’s salary at just under $50,000.
Allentown City Council members' pay "is in the very low end of salaries — especially given the fact Allentown is the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania."Allentown City Clerk Mike Hanlon
Neither office has been given a raise in the quarter-century since voters adopted the home-rule charter, City Clerk Mike Hanlon said in a memo to council members. The mayor’s salary has climbed from $65,000 to $95,000 over the same period.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected a 2002 proposal to allow council to raise members’ salaries without a ballot question. That question failed by a vote of 12,678 to 3,114, according to Hanlon’s memo.
Council members in Easton and Bethlehem earn higher salaries than their counterparts in Allentown. Easton council members make about $9,400, while Bethlehem council members make about $7,100, according to the cities’ budgets.
Allentown City Council members' pay "is in the very low end of salaries — especially given the fact Allentown is the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania," Hanlon wrote.
The ballot question introduced last week would raise Allentown council members’ salaries from $6,140 to $15,000 — a 144% increase — while the council president’s salary would increase from about $6,650 to $16,000.
Assuming salaries for other employees in the city council office remain level, those raises for members would push up the council’s total budget by about 27.5%.
Allentown’s home-rule charter gives voters the authority over the controller’s salary. But the bill introduced last week by council would tie that officeholder’s salary to the mayor’s annual earnings, eliminating voters from the process.
If approved by voters, the controller’s salary would be set at 80% of the mayor’s salary. That would put the controller’s salary at $76,000, based on Mayor Matt Tuerk’s $95,000 salary.
Limiting longevity
Allentown City Council on Wednesday also proposed measures that would block members from serving for more than three terms and cap the controller’s stay in the office at two terms.
That would ensure plenty of turnover in both offices over the next few years.
Council members Daryl Hendricks and Cynthia Mota are in their third terms, while Ce-Ce Gerlach and Candida Affa are all but certain to win third terms in November.
If approved, council members who were appointed to fill the remainder of a term — like Santo Napoli earlier this year — could still serve three four-year terms. An appointed controller could serve two four-year terms.
City Controller Jeff Glazier was first appointed to his role in 2016 after Mary Ellen Koval's resignation.
He was elected to the post in 2017 and won re-election in 2019. He's expected to win a second four-year term in November after running unopposed in May's Democratic primary.
Both bills were referred Wednesday to a council committee, as were last week’s salary-raise proposals.
