Those who serve on the Cody City Council in the future may receive better pay.

At their Sept. 1 and 15 meetings, the current council members voted unanimously to double the compensation for the position — from $100 per meeting to $200. It would be the council’s first pay increase since 2008, when the compensation was raised from $50 per meeting to the current rate.

Members are paid for attending city council meetings and the meetings of committees that they’ve been formally appointed to on behalf of the city. 

City records indicate the average Cody council member earned about $6,500 in the last fiscal year; they would have earned about $13,000 if the proposed hike had been in effect.

Under the proposed ordinance — which still needs to pass a final reading — council members would also receive a new perk: They’d get the same discount on Cody recreation center memberships that other city employees get. (The discount varies by the membership type, but is about $160 or 45% for an annual, individual pass.)

When the ordinance came up for discussion at the Sept. 1 meeting, Mayor Lee Ann Reiter said the council puts in a significant amount of work outside of its chambers.

“Although when we come to these public meetings we may only be here for an hour, there’s sometimes five, six, seven hours worth of preparation to get here,” Reiter said, “to review packets and research information that’s being presented, better understand how best to vote on certain issues and/or to move the ball in a direction to come up with better ideas.”

The proposed increase would put Cody roughly in-line with the $12,000 salary that’s offered to council members in Sheridan, Rock Springs (which also offers limited benefits) and Green River, while leapfrogging Rawlins ($9,000) and Evanston ($7,200) and pulling away from Riverton ($6,000).

As for the City of Powell, it currently pays council members $110 per meeting; the average Powell councilor took home about $3,700 in the last fiscal year, city records show.

They all remain well behind the Town of Jackson, which provides its councilors with a $44,000 salary plus benefits.

During the Sept. 1 discussion, Cody Councilman Jeremy Laing specifically mentioned Jackson’s compensation.

“… When I saw the numbers for Jackson Hole, I was like, ‘That’s got to change,’” Laing said, “because if I ever moved there, I would be like, ‘That’s not right,’ because people who serve should be doing it as a service.’”

Laing said he was OK with increasing the Cody council’s pay to $200 a meeting, though he added that, “It would be my hope going forward that any person interested in serving as a board member, that it truly is a civic duty and that it’s about giving service to the community and providing insight and doing things that are for the benefit of the citizens.”

The proposal still needs to pass one more reading. Even then, it will only apply to the council members who are elected after the ordinance is approved.

The two members currently running for reelection, Don Shreve and Kelly Tamblyn, recused themselves from the council’s discussions and votes, since they could benefit from the pay increase in January; Tamblyn is unopposed while Shreve nearly doubled up his challenger, Dan Schein, in last month’s primary election.

The rest of the council members wouldn’t receive the raise until 2029 — and only if voters give them another term.

Based on last year’s meeting attendance, the City of Cody’s proposed bump in pay would cost the city about $39,000 a year when it is fully implemented. Even with the increase, Reiter said the compensation awarded to the council would still amount to “less than 0.7% of our budget.” The mayor’s salary is set to remain flat at $30,000.

The ordinance is expected to come up for a third and final reading on Oct. 6.

(Editor's note: This version corrects the amount of compensation that Powell City Council members receive per meeting.)