The Annapolis city council will decide whether to adopt deep pay cuts suggested by an independent salary review board when it meets tonight.
The council rejected the pay cut proposals by the Salary Review Commission at its last meeting. But aldermen made a procedural error and will have to vote on the issue again tonight at 7.
The council is likely to reject the recommendations once again and will consider whether to create a new salary review board and start the process from scratch.
The Salary Review Commission, made up of former aldermen, last month voted unanimously to cut the mayor's pay from $52,000 to $40,000 a year and council members' salaries from $8,500 to $5,000. The new salaries would go into effect in 1997, after the next city elections.
The commission, which also recommended doing away with the mayor's $4,000-a-year expense account, said in a letter to the mayor and the eight aldermen that the recommended salary cuts reflect a national mood favoring fiscal restraint in government.
"Today, we need to downsize government, reduce the cost of government and balance the budget, which we feel is uppermost in citizens' minds," the letter stated. "The best way we can do this, in our views, is for the elected officials to set the example."