By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–The future Helena City Council members and mayor will now know their compensation for the 2016-2020 term if elected, as the current Helena City Council members established the monthly salary of the mayor and council members for the next term by passing Ordinance #837-16 on Monday, Feb. 22.

The actual compensation for the future members of the council and mayor will not change for 2016-2020, but what will be changed are the extra incentives and cost of living raises that were included in the revised ordinance from 2008.

Helena Councilwoman Cris Nelson said the council members worked for approximately six weeks to approve an appropriate ordinance and salary for future council members.

“We have been discussing this for probably six weeks now with all the council members and it’s one of the first times that I think there’s been some disagreements in what we’re going to do,” said Nelson. “We finally have worked through all of that. There was some wording in the ordinance that we all disagreed with of the council and the mayor getting COLA raises, which none of us ever did anyway.”

What the Helena City Council agreed to keep the same is the future mayor and city council salary.

The 2016-2020 Helena mayor will be compensated $1,250 a month, $15,000 annually.

The future Helena City Council members will be compensated $300 per month, $3,600 annually.

Helena Mayor Mark Hall said that during his time as mayor he has never taken a salary nor the $500 per month expense account, which was removed for the 2016-2020 ordinance.

Helena Councilman Mike Jones and the rest of the council agreed that the cost of living and other extra incentives needed to be removed.

“Just so you guys know as Cris reviewed, we’re removing all of the additional incentives that were in the 2008 revision,” said Jones. “The only thing we’re leaving the same is the mayor’s pay as written and the council pay as written. My personal opinion is that this is a service and I believe that we all serve this city. I’ve conceded to agree to keep the salary for the council members the same because I don’t want that to keep someone else that’s qualified from running down the road. I can see where that can come into play.”

For 2016-2020, The Helena mayor will no longer receive $500 per month for expenses, the mayor and council members will not receive additional compensation for the completion of Certified Municipal Official training which amounted to $15 extra per month.

Lastly, the future mayor and council members will not receive a cost of living raise.