(A) Creation, membership, terms, vacancies. A Local Officer Compensation Commission is hereby created, which shall determine the salaries of each local elected official. The Commission shall consist of five members who are registered electors of the city, appointed by the Mayor, subject to confirmation by a majority of the members elected and serving on the Council. The terms of office shall be five years, except that, of the members first appointed, one each shall be appointed for terms of one, two, three, four and five years. All first members shall be appointed within 30 days after the effective date of this section. Thereafter members shall be appointed at the December meeting of Council each year. Vacancies shall be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term. No member or employee of the legislative, judicial or executive branch of government or a member of the immediate family of a member or employee shall be eligible to be a member of the Commission.
(B) Determination of salaries, expense allowances or reimbursements. The Commission shall determine the salary of the Mayor and Council members. The determination shall be the salaries unless the Council, by resolution adopted by two-thirds of the members elected to and serving on the Council, rejects it. The determination of the Commission shall be effective 30 days following its filing with the City Clerk/Treasurer unless rejected by the Council. If the determination is rejected, the existing salary shall prevail. The expense allowance or reimbursement paid to elected officials in addition to salary shall be for expenses incurred in the course of city business and accounted for to the city.
(C) Meeting of Commission; quorum; concurrence of majority; Chairperson; session days; compensation. The Commission shall meet for not more than 15 session days in each odd-numbered year and shall make its determination within 45 calendar days after its first meeting. The first meeting and all subsequent meetings shall be no later than April 15 of each odd-numbered year, and the Commission shall file its determination with the City Clerk/Treasurer on or before June 1 of each odd-numbered year. A majority of the members of the Commission constitutes a quorum for conducting the business of the Commission. The Commission shall not take action or make a determination without a concurrence of a majority of the members appointed and serving on the Commission. The Commission shall elect a Chairperson from among its members. As used in this section, SESSION DAY means a calendar day on which the Commission meets and a quorum is present. The members of the Commission shall not receive compensation, but shall be entitled to actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of official duties.
(D) Open meetings. All business which the Commission may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting of the Commission held in compliance with Public Act 267 of the Public Acts, as amended. Public notice of the time, date and place of the meeting of the Commission shall be given in the manner required by Public Act 267 of 1976, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.261 through 15.275, being the “Open Meetings Act”.
(E) Freedom of information. A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of or retained by the Commission in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public in compliance with Public Act 442 of 1976, being “The Freedom of Information Act”, being M.C.L.A. §§ 15.231 through 15.246.
(F) Implementation; changes in procedure for establishing compensation. Council shall implement this section by resolution. After one year following the date the ordinance goes into effect, the procedure for establishing the compensation of elected officials may be changed by Charter amendment or revision.
(G) Referendum in ordinance. Not more than 60 days after the effective date of the ordinance, a petition for a referendum on the ordinance may be filed pursuant to the procedure provided in the Charter or otherwise by filing a petition with the City Clerk/Treasurer containing the signatures of a least 5% of the registered electors of the city on the effective date of the ordinance. The election shall be conducted in the same manner as an election on a Charter amendment. If a petition for referendum is filed, a determination of the Commission shall not be effective until the ordinance has been approved by the electors.
(Ord. 144, passed 12-13-1993; Ord. 182, § 2, passed 2-13-2012)