Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission Meeting - Oct 28, 2025
Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission Meeting - Oct 28, 2025
The Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission convened on October 28, 2025, primarily to reenact votes from a previous meeting where meeting notice failures were identified to ensure compliance with the Open Meetings Act. During the session, the commission elected Erica Hill as Chairperson and Tiffany Jackson as Vice Chair. The commission heard presentations from the City Clerk and Council members advocating for elected officials' salary adjustments based on market comparisons and budget availability, while receiving status reports from various city departments and deferring a fiscal impact analysis to a future meeting.
Consent Calendar
- Reenactment of Votes: The commission reenacted the election of officers and procedural motions from the October 22 meeting to validate decisions and prevent Open Meetings Act violations. Election results were 3-1 for Hill (Chair) and Jackson (Vice Chair).
- Resolution Approvals: Unanimous acceptance of resolutions regarding:
- Modification of the 2025 meeting schedule (removing the November 13 date due to venue issues).
- Requests for input and information from Detroit Elected Officials regarding the salary determination process.
- Request for a report from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) on budget process effects.
- Request for reports from the Human Resources Department (HR) regarding salary histories, comparative markets, and general wage obligations.
Public Comments & Testimony
- City Clerk (Madam Clerk): Expressed full support for increased compensation to attract high-quality candidates, citing the evolving nature of the job, the threat of violence to workers, and the disparity between her salary and that of her staff and similarly situated clerks in other municipalities.
- Councilman Scott Benson: Expressed strong support for a pay raise, stating the city has the financial capacity due to a pre-authorized $300,000 annual increase in the fiscal year 2026 budget.
- Commissioner (unnamed): Expressed concern regarding wage disparities, noting the Detroit City Clerk earns significantly less than clerks in cities with fewer precincts (e.g., Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights).
- Matt Spith (Deputy Budget Director, OCFO): Stated that the OCFO does not have a written report at this time and will only provide a fiscal impact analysis after the commission determines the proposed wage increase. He confirmed that the $300,000 budget provision cited by Councilman Benson exists and is recurring.
Discussion Items
- Meeting Schedule Modifications: The commission discussed the removal of the November 13 meeting date due to auditorium reservations; the October 22 and 28 meetings were confirmed for the current room, with other dates in the auditorium.
- Market Data Analysis: Staff presented data showing that city council members and the city clerk in Detroit are paid 8%, 13%, and 30% below market rates, respectively, compared to similarly situated full-time cities (Boston, Louisville, Memphis).
- Inspector General Request: The commission introduced a resolution to request an opinion from the Office of the Inspector General regarding the potential detrimental impact of compensation increases on the city's overall budget.
- Procedural Clarifications: Commissioners engaged in significant discussion regarding the reenactment of votes, the validity of previous minutes, and the procedural order of receiving the OCFO's fiscal impact statement (decided to accept the verbal report and defer the written analysis until after a determination is made).
Key Outcomes
- Election Results: Erica Hill elected Chairperson (3 votes); Tiffany Jackson elected Vice Chairperson (3 votes).
- Minute Approval: The commission approved the minutes from the October 22, 2025 meeting, acknowledging they were reenacted for legal validity.
- Fiscal Impact Deferral: The commission moved to accept the OCFO's verbal report but agreed to defer the formal costing and impact report until the commission has made a specific recommendation on compensation adjustments.
- Investigation Requested: A resolution was adopted to formally request an opinion from the Office of the Inspector General on the proposed compensation increase.
- Next Meeting: Scheduled for November 7, 2025, at the auditorium.
- Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned with no public comment received.
Meeting Transcript
Through the chair, if would I be able to explain why we're reenacting this, if that's all right. Um, while you guys are filling it out, I'm just explaining this so the uh audience knows. Um, the reason why we're reenacting the votes from last meeting is after the first meeting last week, we discovered that the meeting notice wasn't appearing online. So, in order to uh make sure that there's no open meetings act violation, we're now reenacting the votes from the first meeting. Um that everybody can see who votes which way. Is this one? Yeah. Oh caveat. Madam Clerk, do you have the results of the ballots? I have the results. The clerk will read the ballot results. For vice chair, I have three votes for Jackson. And I have one vote for Hill. And for Chairperson, I have three votes for Hill and one vote for Jackson. Congratulations to the chair, Erica Hill and Vice Chair Tiffany Jackson. I would now turn the remainder of the meeting over to the chairperson. Thank you. Okay, so we will now review the uh resolutions requesting relevant input and information from City Council Mayor and the City Clerk. Through the chair, if I may. But I will say that the resolution setting meeting schedule has been modified slightly from the version that was mod voted on at last week's meeting. That's because we were informed after last week's meeting that this meeting room will not be available for the meeting dates that were selected after this date. So that was the November seventh, November thirteenth, and November seventeenth meeting dates. However, the November thirteenth meeting date was um already it was already the auditorium was already reserved for that date. So I did put a reservation in for the seventh and seventeenth. Um and so I have everything all but confirmed. Um once I have final confirmation of that, I'll put the commissioners know. Um so that's the that's the only change that was made in that uh resolution. Still the same meeting time, same dates. We did have one extra meeting date in there as a precaution. So losing that 13th, the 13th is a meeting date. But if not, if it's coming up to the 17th and it doesn't look like we're going to be able to complete the commission's duty of determining the elected officials' salaries, we will schedule an uh a subsequent date at that 17th meeting. Okay, so is that the reason why the 13th is not listed? Correct. Okay. And I did add um in the provision following the schedule. Uh clarification that the October 22 and 28 meetings will be in this room and that the other meetings will be in the auditorium. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um so we'll proceed with the resolution to accept the resolution of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission requesting relevant input and information from Detroit elected officials. Thank you. Any objections? No. No. So moved. We'll move on to the resolution of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission requesting a report from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer on how the Commission's actions may be affected by the budget process and for a fiscal impact statement. So any objections? No. We have the resolution of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission setting commission settings schedule of 2025 meetings. So moved.
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