By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – An attempt by incoming St. Tammany Parish Council Chairman Jake Airey to ensure council members don’t get a pay increase almost led to a night of attacks on council members at the scheduled monthly meeting this Thursday, Jan. 5.
Airey said he found an item in a parish ordinance that stated council members would get a similar percentage increase in pay anytime government workers were given a pay increase. Parish workers have received a raise more than once in the past four years, however, to date no pay increase has been given to council members.
For this Thursday’s meeting Airey submitted a change to the ordinance that included a paragraph which stated, “Whereas, it is the desire of the Parish Council to amend the salary of council members beginning the 2023 fiscal year….” The wording easily led many members of the public to be certain that Airey was seeking a pay raise for council members starting after the November 2023 elections.
But Airey said he was making the ordinance change to be certain there was no automatic increase in pay because of the language in the parish statute. Council members currently receive approximately $30,000 a year.
The already publicly active St. Tammany Library Accountability Project members, who have been critical of the Parish Council for not supporting their efforts to create a restricted area in the library for pornographic books, exploded online and with e-mails.
“Do you see what I see??? Is the Council planning to vote themselves a raise?? Recently, we the people said NO to more taxes. We said it not just once or twice, but FOUR times. Interesting we have no voice in this matter,” one e-mail to group members said.
Leaders of the Accountability Project encouraged others to show up at the meeting this Thursday night to voice their opinion about why the Parish Council couldn’t find a way to restrict pornographic books but were willing to vote in a pay raise.
When Airey heard about the hoopla, he quickly cleared the air.
“This ordinance is to ENSURE we do not get a pay raise,” he said, something that was expected considering an ongoing budget crunch still being experienced by the parish.
Airey said that he wanted to remove the portion of the ordinance that guaranteed a pay raise for council members, “so we can be certain nobody is getting a raise.”