Fishers City Council President John Weingardt says he and fellow Council Member Selina Stoller plan to recommend to the Finance Committee a plan increasing compensation for elected city officials and establishing a plan whereby those same officials can get reimbursed for expenses incurred in their work on city business.

If the Finance Committee members go along, the plan would be put to a vote by the full Fishers City Council.

On the issue of elected officials salaries, Weingardt told the Finance Committee “…we, as a group, are recommending an increase.”  The council president said he and fellow council member Selina Stoller have been looking at data on elected officials salaries and where Fishers fits in, but are not prepared to provide a specific plan to increase salaries yet.  That could come next month.

Weingardt did say his group would recommend an accountable plan where city council members can be reimbursed for expenses they currently pay our of their own pockets. This would not be a flat monthly allowance, but would provide a system where councilors could submit vouchers for specific reimbursement once expenses are paid.

In other news from the Wednesday night Finance Committee session…

–The full City Council will likely vote Monday night on setting up an Audit Committee.  This would allow the city to ask for state approval to use a private, independent accounting firm to conduct audits of the city’s finances, instead of having this done by the State Board of Accounts.

–A new transparency Web portal is expected to be available by the end of June.

–The partial city census is continuing.  Census workers are going door-to-door collecting information.  The census should be complete by October, or earlier.