By virtue of the County’s Home Rule Charter (Article III, Section 7) the fifteen members of County Council don’t get a salary for their service and don’t get County funds for personal staff, local district offices, or fringe benefits. The body may hire centralized staff (including a Clerk).
What Council members do receive as compensation include “per-meeting stipends” than don’t exceed $9,000 per member and can be reimbursed up to $3,000 per year per member for “actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties” (all County elected officials can be reimbursed, but the Charter places the $3,000 limit on Council members). This is further spelled out in the Code of Ordinances (5-301.09).
The $9,000 stipend amount and the $3,000 reimbursement are not to exceed four-tenths of one percent of the County’s annual locally levied tax revenues (presumably this would include the drink and car rental taxes along with the property tax) and the stipend amount and the reimbursement amount can be increased by up to 5% every five years. It is the latter amount that Council has expressed interest in boosting recently. If Council were to take the whole amount at once the current reimbursement amount would rise to $3,150.
