Can somebody help?

My little city of Ironton (pop. 11,211 as of 2000) is laying off 11 city workers. From water treatment, sanitation, to the meter maid, to save $500,000 a year. We do not have many city workers to begin with and cutting these jobs is going to cause major problems as talked about in our city council meetings. People of the city are brainstorming to figure out how to cut corner without the lay-off. I, for one, would like to see the city officials take a some cut in pay. For instance, our Mayor make $62,000 a year. Yep $62,000 a year in this low populated area. Does anyone know how much money the mayor of Columbus makes? I heard it's not as much as Ironton's mayor. If that's the case, we need some serious reform of pay in the city government. I mean Columbus is the 15th biggest city in the USA.

Visit my home town. http://www.city-data.com/city/Ironton-Ohio.html

This looks to be the current pay scale -- and planned raises -- as of December 2002 for Columbus, Ohio:

Mayor(E) $124,073/yr.
Eff. 1/1/03, $129,036/yr.
Eff. 1/1/04, $132,907/yr.
Eff. 1/1/05, $136,894/yr.
Eff. 1/1/06, $141,001/yr.
Eff. 1/1/07, $145,231/yr.

Here's the link to the bulletin (looks like a regular addendum to the city budget that they're required to publish):

http://www.columbuscitycouncil.org/bulletin/pdf/2002/bulletin122102.pdf

The chart is on page 17 of the 117 page PDF document, in case you want to print it out to use for backup. Just thought I'd let you know the document is large, in case you're on dialup or have a slow computer.

On edit -- dropped a couple of dollar signs when pasting the text. Doesn't look like it holds your argument up, but then my guess is Coleman has about ten times as many responsibilities as the mayor of a city the size of Ironton, so ...

Maybe if Queen Jane, whose husband already makes megabucks, would cut her salary just a smidgen and get rid of a few totally unneccesary cronies in her administration, they wouldn't have to do this. Actually, I don't think it's going to go through since there's just too much of a shitstorm about it.

Does that make sense? What I am hinting at is that the Ironton mayor makes as much money as a state rep, who represents a lot more people than are in the city of Ironton. In all fairness, a mayor does have different responsibilities and must make executive decisions, and some state reps have demonstrated that you can be a legislator and not do much :). I am just trying to put this in perspective. Ohio's state reps are well-paid, compared to other states, too.

Can they consolidate the fire district?

Has there been a mill closing in that town that caused layoffs and loss of tax revenue?

This city has taken a beating. It was repub for a long time, but last election a dem got in. We have lost a lot of jobs here. Our Ironton Iron plant went down a few years ago, which had a lot of employes. Don't know how many for sure. I would guess 300 or so, but I don't like to throw numbers when I may not be right. Another place went down called Cabletron that had been here for many years. There were a lot of people who work there too.
I hear people talking about our Mayor also getting a % of what our judges make. I still have to look into that.

Oh, we lost our hospital too. Guess no more baby's will be born in lawrence county anymore. Unless it happens before some one gets to a hospital somewhere else.

The Ohio Municipal League produces an annual salary survey for elected officials and public safety employees in Ohio. It breaks down averages and median salaries by size of city and type of municipal government. It is very detailed. I can't find an online source for the report and I don't have a copy at work, but it would have ammunition for your argument. I suspect you might find that Ironton's mayor is the highest paid in the state for a city that size.

http://www.omunileague.org/

I could not find that data, per se. It will take some hunting.