Brooklyn Park Council Considers More Than Doubling Mayor’s Salary

The Brooklyn Park City Council is considering giving its top figurehead a substantial pay raise.

Currently, Brooklyn Park’s part-time mayor is paid $21,995 per year, plus a $50 supplement for attending certain municipal functions.

And if you ask the council, that’s not nearly enough.

The city’s governing body moved ahead with plans on Monday to raise the mayor’s pay to $50,000 per year.

If that raise is approved in a future meeting, the $50 supplement would be eliminated.

“I think there’s a certain pressure on the mayor that council members don’t experience in terms of our schedule and expectations on our time,” said Council Member Christian Eriksen, who proposed the mayor’s pay raise. “There’s definitely an opportunity cost to anyone who chooses to run for mayor that demands a kind of flexibility in their schedule that just certain occupations wouldn’t be amenable to.”

As part of Eriksen’s proposal, the six non-mayor council members would have their pay rate frozen.

Previously, the city’s charter commission recommended raising the mayor’s pay by five percent and the council’s by three percent.

“I will make it very clear that I didn’t bring this item forward,” said Mayor Hollies Winston. “Do I think it’s necessary maybe for future leadership? Yes, but it’s not something I considered bringing forward.”

Council-Manager Government

Brooklyn Park has a weak mayor or council-manager system of government. That is, the city manager, who is appointed by the council, oversees the day-to-day activities of the government.

The mayor chairs the council’s meetings and is often called upon to represent the city at municipal functions and the state Capitol.

Elected council members set policy, while the city manager implements it. Likewise, the city manager is employed at-will by the majority of the council.

That said, several council members said they put in more work than is reflected in their pay.

“It’s an incredible amount of time that people spend doing this,” said Council Member Nichole Klonowski. “Anyone in that seat should be paid better than what we offer … the mayor role is no where near part-time and it should be compensated more fairly.”

Pay Raise for Council Members

Klonowski concurred with the charter commission’s recommendations, proposing a 3 percent increase in compensation for the council.

“We really want to attract people of color and more women to these roles, but we’re not saying that we also think these seats should have comparable pay to other cities?” she said. “I think that’s doing a disservice to future council members.”

The council voted 4-0 to approve the first reading of the pay raise ordinance.

Council Members Tony McGarvey, Amanda Cheng Xiong, Eriksen and Klonowski cast votes approving the ordinance. Council Members Shelle Page and Maria Tran, as well as Winston abstained from voting.

If the ordinance is approved on a second reading, it will not take effect until 2027. 

Brooklyn Park