The good folks in Myrtle Beach are discussing a potential 250 percent pay increase to the mayor's salary that would take effect after the next election. The mayor currently gets $20,000 a year, plus a generous car allowance. It would increase to $50,000 under the proposal, plus a generous (if slightly less so) monthly car allowance. I'm not like most other people who get outraged every time an elected official gets a raise or potentially does so. And this doesn't necessarily apply to John Rhodes, only if it goes through and he wins re-election, so that should make it easier to have a rational conversation about this. The mayor's seat is not technically any more powerful than a council seat, but in the real world of Myrtle Beach, where image is extremely important, a competent mayor who knows how to sell the city well is extremely important, making that position more powerful than that of a council member's. I know the city manager does the day-to-day work, but the mayor helps to oversee a $152 million annual budget and decisions about how to disperse funds to deal with a 30,000 population that swells to several times its size during the peak months. That is a lot of responsibility, particularly when something goes wrong or a hurricane approaches. How the mayor handles himself in the public eye is critical to the uninterrupted success of our tourism economy. Just as Myrtle Beach is a national brand and bigger than the relatively small footprint it has on the Census, the mayor's position is as well. Given that, a $50,000 salary plus benefits would not be an outrageous use of public funds.
I don't have a problem with the proposal. Do you?
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