Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer's effort to boost future mayors' and aldermen's salaries was roundly defeated after city officials realized that it would actually cut council members' pay -- and was illegal.
Council members unanimously rejected Monday night a 3 percent cost of living adjustment in their paychecks, after realizing they would have to take a pay cut first.
The bill would have also applied to themselves retroactively to July 1, though state law allows the council to change the salaries only of their successors.
While Moyer, who is on a six-week tour of Europe, said in an interview yesterday from Scotland that the bill was not what she intended, city officials criticized the botched effort.
"The bill was so poorly written that instead of being a raise, it would have been a decrease," said Alderwoman Classie Gillis Hoyle, a Ward 3 Democrat.
Moyer said she sponsored the charter amendment at the request of aldermen to implement a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment to salaries that was approved by a previous City Council in January 2005.
She said this first COLA for the city's elected officials had not been put into place because of wording changes that needed to be made in the charter.
Under the provisions set forth by her bill, however, Moyer's salary of $70,000 would have been cut to $65,000 for the 2008 fiscal year and would have increased from that amount by 3 percent each year after that. Aldermen would receive a $600 salary cut to $12,000, also getting the 3 percent yearly increase.
"This bill is not as I recommended," Moyer said. "I haven't a clue what that is about."
Moyer said she worked with City Attorney Shaem C. Spencer on the bill, who drafted it at her request.
Spencer was not available yesterday for comment.
Ward 1 Alderman Richard E. Israel, a Democrat and a retired assistant state attorney general who served on the panel that examined council raises two years ago, was the first to question the legality of Moyer's bill.
"I really don't know what [Moyer's] thinking is because we haven't discussed it," he said.
City Finance Director Tim Elliott said the council's last raise was two years ago, when the mayor's salary increased from $65,000 to $70,000 and aldermen's salaries increased from $12,000 to $12,600.
The City Council will continue to review salaries as it has done in the past, following the recommendations of an ad hoc commission that evaluates salaries every four years before elections.
In other action, the council approved a lease of City Dock for the Annapolis Triathlon, which will take place Sept. 9.
The bill was passed with amendments.
rochelle.mcconkie@baltsun.com