In a letter submitted to the city auditor's office Wednesday, Duluth Mayor Don Ness formalized his intentions to turn down a City Council-approved pay raise.
"I am choosing to keep my salary as it is at $78,000, instead of accepting the increase to $97,500, through the remainder of my term, Jan. 4, 2016," he wrote.
The mayor has authority to reduce his own pay and has exercised it in the past, said Daniel Fanning, a city spokesman. In 2009, after deep cuts in local government aid payments the city was to receive from the state, Ness wrote a similar letter to Auditor Wayne Parson indicating that he would take a 3 percent cut in salary for the year. So there was a precedent for the mayor's actions Wednesday.
Fanning said there was no need for Ness to pull out his veto pen.
"He agrees with the council that the pay for the mayor's position should be increased, but he doesn't personally feel comfortable accepting a raise right now," Fanning said.
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He explained that leaving the resolution in place will ensure that whoever is elected Duluth's next mayor will be able to begin collecting a higher salary in 2016.
