The recent pay adjustments to the salaries of elected officials in Sumpter Township was the first increase in nearly two decades.
A realignment of compensation was first suggested and begun in November of 2019 when unintended disparities between the payments to members of the board of trustees were questioned.
The first adjustment was approved by a vote of the trustees in November 2019 and eliminated the medical portion of the board compensation which was the main cause of the disparity, explained Trustee Matt Oddy.
The COVID pandemic and the subsequent unprecedented operational issues, delayed the restructuring of the board compensation process by 20 months, Oddy said, although that delay in restructuring did save the township “over $120,000 through June 2021.”
The restructure of the compensation was finally completed last July and used the total compensation paid to board members in 2019 as a starting point to correct the longstanding disparities in pay to board members. The pay of the highest paid members was decreased and the pay of each board member was equalized.
Under the new plan, the elected supervisor will be paid $38,000 annually, with is a reduction of $1,729. The township clerk will now be compensated at a rate of $30,000, which is an increase of $2,143. The township treasurer will be paid $30,000, which is an increase of $6,574. Each board trustee will be compensated at the same $22,000 annual rate. For one board member, that is a reduction of $1,345, while for others it is an increase of $254, $779 and in one case, $6,715.
Oddy said that the new schedule, with the approval and input of the township finance department, will now eliminate disparities in pay for board members.
“Compensation will now be based on the elected office,” he said.
