By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The pay for the Pinckney Village president position garnered lengthy debate during Monday night’s virtual Council meeting.

Council approved $13,600 in the budget line item for president compensation. However, the Budget Committee later proposed half of that – prompting President Rebecca Foster to question why the numbers shrunk from what was originally approved in the budget. Councilwoman Linda Lavey commented there was lengthy discussion and lots of factors considered. She said there was intended to be wiggle room for salary and the idea of having a president-manager but that was shot down by the attorney because the roles legally cannot be confused.

Foster commented the budgeted amount was absolutely "ludicrous" anyway - saying there isn’t a supervisor in the county that gets paid that. Foster - who previously served as president and then a trustee before being elected president again - said she’s been arguing for manager since 2005 but has got absolutely nowhere. Foster said if Council wants the president to be in the office more often, then that’s management – not the volunteer part. Foster said the volunteer part is running a meeting and fielding emails and calls throughout the day while not in the office and serving on boards like the Economic Development Council. She said the management part is things like coordinating staff, helping with project managements and coordinating what’s going on with the accounting consultant.

Foster said it was up to Council to ultimately decide if they want someone in the office – noting she’s been averaging 17 hours week for the last three weeks and after doing the math, it equated to $4.41 an hour. Foster said Council was well within its rights to reduce the budgeted number but noted it’s also within her rights to reduce how much time she spends in the office. Foster said "I bust my ass and I'm gonna bust my ass and I wanna be compensated fairly and $13,600 is barely even that but that's what we approved in the budget".

The salary is set for the office, not a person, and law stipulates that it can be increased during a term by Council but it cannot be reduced. It was noted the president position is defined by law and part of the stumbling block is that if you decide to pay and assign manager duties, you still can’t legally require them to be in the office a minimum amount of time. Attorney David Stoker commented that a village president is the CEO so if there isn’t a village manager, then all executive functions fall on that position – adding how diligent someone will be at following those is the issue.

There was lengthy debate amongst members about management versus volunteer duties as well as volunteer versus elected positions. Some felt roles and expectations need to be better defined. Ultimately, Council approved the president compensation at the budgeted amount in a 4-3 vote. Trustees Brian Matson, Robert Vedder and Shawn Tibus were opposed.