While Warsaw Common Council has agreed that city employees across the board will receive a $750 wage increase in 2014, they have not yet agreed on their own salaries.

Council president Diane Quance proposed last night that the elected board receive an annual salary increase of $193, which represented a 3.5 percent raise. She said it fell more in line with other cities of comparable sizes and what their council receives. “We fall second from the bottom,” she said, noting that even Columbia City council members are paid $3,200 more than Warsaw.

The current salary ordinance calls for council members to receive $6,181.60 in 2014 for their service.

Charlie Smith said he did some calculations of his own and thought a flat $250 increase would be sufficient, but said he did not think any of the council members were in the job for the money and added, “I would feel uncomfortable with the $750.”

Mike Klondaris explained that, initially, he thought the $750 was fair, but in re-examining the numbers, he agreed with Smith on the $250. “It’s probably fair because all of the time spent on this job and the expenses we occur … time and travel, printing off my own documents.” Cindy Dobbins agreed with Smith and Klondaris.

The only one in opposition to the increase was Jeff Grose, who remained adamant that the council should not give itself a larger raise than the department heads. He explained that Mayor Joe Thallemer’s salary is increasing by just over 1 percent in 2014 and stressed, “We should do the exact same thing for us … I think (anything higher) it’s just a poor message we send to the taxpayers; we should avoid any kind of number and just go with the 1.1 percent that Joe is getting.” By Grose’s calculations, that would be only about a $75 increase for each council member. “We need to stay true to the principle,” Grose said.

In the end, the council voted 5-1 in favor of a $250 increase. Council woman Elaine Call was not present for the meeting. The council will review the salary ordinance again and has until the end of the year to finalize it.

Human resources director Jennifer Whitaker said a private agency will be brought in in 2014 to review all of the city salaries.

The next Warsaw Common Council meeting is at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21.