City Council members and the mayor could receive a raise effective June 1. The council at its April 14 meeting accepted the Council Compensation Committee's recommendation to increase council and mayor compensation. Councilman Jerry Hammerlun, who served as co-chair of the Council Compensation Committee along with Councilwoman Patty Eason, presented to council the committee’s recommendation to increase council compensation to $800 a month and the mayor’s compensation to $1,100 a month. “[The committee] wanted to know what the costs were to us as individuals—not only from a time perspective, but also what were the real costs of transportation, printing costs at our homes and all those types of things,” Hammerlun said. “This was not a rubber-stamping group.” Mayor Dale Ross appointed seven people to the committee and selected Hammerlun and Eason—both of whom are not seeking re-election—to serve as co-chairs. One member of the committee voted against the recommendation, Hammerlun said. “The person who recommended nothing really felt that this was public service,” he said. Councilman Steve Fought said he agrees serving on council is a public service. But to ensure there more people who can serve, the city must offer fiscal compensation that makes fiscal sense, he said. “There are a couple of interests that you want to protect. One of them is the diversity of the council, you shouldn’t be financially burdened significantly by being on the council,” Fought said. “Because if you [are] then people who are just getting started in their careers, just getting started in their businesses and things like that cannot afford to take time away if the economic burden is such that you can’t afford to do public service. … There’s got to be a number that says it’s still public service, but you are not going to lose a great deal. And we are going to open the door to as many people as we can.” Council and mayor compensations were last amended in June 2012. City Council approved amending compensation from a base pay with expense reimbursements to a monthly set amount of $400 for council members and $550 for the mayor.