A public hearing was held last week to discuss updating compensation for Riverside elected officials for the first time in more than 20 years.
At the Tuesday, Sept. 5 meeting of the board of aldermen, city administrator Brian Koral said the compensation for elected officials had last been adjusted in 1995 – and prior to that it was set in 1976.
The current rates are $225 per meeting for the mayor and $100 per meeting for aldermen, with a maximum of five meetings per month. The city averages about 30 meetings per year.
The city of North Kansas City recently reviewed their own elected official compensation and conducted a regional study, so Riverside officials have used NKC’s research to inform their own into compensation
Following inflation, Koral said the mayor’s pay could be increased to $425 and aldermen to $185 per meeting. Any pay change would only become effective at the beginning of a new term in office. So seats filled in 2024 would be the first eligible for the new pay schedule.
Ward I alderman Steve Palma spoke in favor of the increase, stating what mayor Kathy Rose made was equal to what he made at a job at a department store in the 1980s.
“It certainly is a reasonable ask I think,” he said. “Who is going to want to take that role at $6,000 a year and do a good job, so I think it’s reasonable to put it between 16-20.”
Rose said she works for $6,000 a year because she loves the community, but she wants to hear the thoughts of the community on the matter.
The only comments at the public forum were in support of a compensation adjustment and the board plans to address the matter again before November.
HCA MIDWEST PROPOSAL
A proposal by HCA Midwest Health to build a free-standing emergency room in the Northland was a topic of discussion at a recent Riverside Board of Aldermen meeting.
At the Aug. 15 meeting, Koral and Rose spoke about the proposal, which would place a stand-alone 12-bed emergency room to the area of Highways 152 and 169. The HCA group has applied for a certificate of need, stating this area of the Northland requires more emergency care options.
Rose said the proposal has some supporters, but seemingly more opposition and the matter was scheduled to be discussed in the Planning and Development Committee meeting in late August for the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Rose is the current chair of the Northland Chamber’s executive committee.
Several of the concerns with the plan were outlined. HCA’s nearest hospital should a patient require admission is nearly 20 miles away, south of the Missouri River, while currently most emergency cases in the Riverside area are sent to either North Kansas City Hospital or St. Luke’s North, both of which are nearby.
In comparison to North Kansas City Hospital which has not closed, Koral said, HCA hospitals have closed for emergency admissions several times in the past six months.
“Some of HCA’s ratings and stats have not been great,” Rose said.
Rose also noted that those sent to NKC or St. Luke’s emergency rooms could be admitted to those hospitals right from the ER.
Rose compared HCA’s attempted move to the Northland to Heartland Hospital in St. Joseph’s unsuccessful attempt to move into the Northland a decade ago.
“I am passionately in opposition,” Rose said, stating HCA has not bothered to make itself a community partner before trying to move into the Northland market.
Based upon the opinions of Riverside’s first responders, Rose said she would like to send a letter of opposition to the proposal to the Northland Regional Chamber. Aldermen agreed with this suggestion and the city will move forward in opposition to the project.