At the March 13, 2013 Cottrellville Township Board Meeting, Trustee Michael Zoran was the one and only Cottrellville Township Board member to vote "No" to what ultimately resulted in a $1,500 pay raise for Cottrellville Township Board members.
Clerk Lori Russelburg and Treasurer Sandra Keais will receive a pay raise of $1,000 starting in April of 2013. This large 4.2% pay raise will increase by an additional $500 automatically in April of 2014. The overall net result is a whopping 6.25% pay raise!
Supervisor Kelly Fiscelli-Lisco, Trustee Ken Chartier, Clerk Lori Russelburg, and Treasurer Sandy Keais voted "Yes" to this large pay raise. The one and only Cottrellville Township Board member to vote "No" to this large pay raise was Trustee Michael Zoran.
Michael Zoran did not support the pay raises for several primary reasons:
First, the Cottrellville Township Annual Budget still isn't finished, which means it has not even been officially documented that these raises can be paid for.
Second, we are living in a difficult economic time period where other workers are going through cuts in pay and cuts in insurance. Simply remaining at the same level of pay would have been good enough for Cottellville Township employees. Allowing Cottrellville Township employees to receive such an incredibly large raise was unfair to all the hard-working residents of Cottrellville Township who are forced to cut back on spending money because of the tough economic time period we are currently going through.
Third, the population of Cottrellville Township has decreased, which means the annual revenue has decreased. We should not be spending more money on the wages of board members when we have less money to spend during a tough economic time period. The tax money Cottrellville Township receives from all the nice people I visited when I went door-to-door campaigning to over 550 homes means a lot to me, and I want to spend it wisely, not selfishly.
Fourth, the property values in Cottrellville Township have decreased because of all the blight ordinance violations the previous board and current board allows to exist. This drop in property value causes the annual revenue to decrease. Kelly Fiscelli has decided not to fulfill campaign promises of entering into a contract with an attorney specializing in Municipal Law. Kelly Lisco has also decided not to fulfill the campaign promise of sending out an RFP for a Building Inspector and sending out an RFP for Ordinance Enforcement Officer when those contracts currently signed with Bill Klaassen expire later this year.
Finally, elected officials are 100% aware of the rate of pay when they apply for the job. If the rate of pay isn't good enough for an elected official, then I -- Michael Zoran -- believe the elected official should not apply for the job.
