Mayor's Compensation... 2014

Mayor's Compensation... Rochester Hills City Council voted base salary 111,199* for 2014. Our City Charter requires a zero degree to be the Mayor of Rochester Hills not even a High School diploma or GED. Actually the only thing it takes to be a Mayor is residency... zero dollars owed to the city like a water bill when you file, and votes. It is also very sad the majority of residents in Rochester Hills don't even care who the Mayor or City Council members are, only 15% to 18% of Rochester Hills votes in local elections. The President of the United States... totally different story... in Rochester Hills about an 85% turn out. Bottom Line all it takes is about 5,501 voters to get elected Mayor of Rochester Hills... only about 11,000 vote for a Mayor.

It's really cool you get to have someone paint your name really big on some big glass double doors up at City Hall. Bryan K. Barnett name is about 5 inches tall, two to three feet wide. Plus tons of at taxpayer expense trips like to Turkey, Germany and Washington DC, and you... every year get to go and have your picture taken with the President of the United States... they call this the annual Mayor's Conference... Limo rides and tons of free food and booze! Bryan K. Barnett is also the top ribbon cutting elected official in Oakland County... even more than Brooks Patterson. (sorry please excuse my sarcasm)

*Base salary $111,199 is exactly that base salary this does not cover the cost of our Mayor's "Cadillac Health Care Benefits". Top notch few deductibles... last I checked same compensation as the city union contracts. We the taxpayers pay all the Mayor's "Benefits" on top of that base salary. Zero dollars are taken from our Mayor's paycheck to pay for Health Care Benefits, Dental Benefits, Optical Benefits, Life Insurance, and Retirement Benefits (12% per year based on the base salary... lump sum payout) for our Mayor and our Mayor's immediate family receives all benefits too... that makes sense a practice still I hope in the private sector, or if your spouse has Health Care Benefits the City will pay you to join their plan. This also does not include our Mayor's car/gas allowance ($550 per month last I checked) and a personal credit card to use to take friends to lunch (sorry forgot the word business lunch). Piece of ancient history heard a rumor Mayor Billie Ireland Rochester Hills used the credit card to buy her clothing with it. note: I may be slightly incorrect you can call our HR department and double check the 12% and car allowance... 248.656.4708

Including our Mayor's car/gas allowance; this comes to about an additional $30,000+ cost to the city per year on top of base salary..

big big NOTE: The municipal employees at city hall and our DPS/Fire are a tight-knit family; they have been through a lot of different Mayors, I chuckle every time I here how great of job our Mayor's do ... great example Keith Sawdon Finance Director Rochester Hills got us through the last recession not Mayor Bryan K. Barnett! The continued success of Rochester Hills is it's municipal employees not the Mayors; many municipal employees have served us well for over 30 years.

Scot Beaton Political Experience:
former Rochester Hills City Council member 1988 to 1997
former President, Rochester Hills City Council (2 Years)