If Stow voters sign off in 2026, the city’s top elected officials could be taking home six-figure salaries by early 2028, with automatic annual raises built in for the years that follow.
Stow City Council is advancing a proposal to ask voters to lift the base pay for the mayor, the law director, and the finance director to $100,000 each and then lock in yearly cost-of-living adjustments. The raises would kick in on Jan. 2, 2028, with the automatic cost-of-living increases set to begin Jan. 2, 2029, tied to either the U.S. CPI-U or the largest raise negotiated by any city collective bargaining unit. Council members have already wrangled over the details at recent meetings and signaled they may bring back a tweaked version before anything is finalized.
What the ordinance says
The proposal, introduced as Ordinance No. 2026-100, would set the mayor’s base salary at $100,000, which is a 24% bump over the level first set in 2011. The law director and finance director would also move to $100,000, roughly 23% increases over the pay established in 2013. Starting Jan. 2, 2029, those salaries would climb every year by the higher of two numbers: the annual percentage change in the CPI-U or the largest percentage raise negotiated by any of the city’s collective bargaining units. The measure also spells out that the paychecks would go out on the same bi-weekly schedule used for other salaried city employees.
According to the ordinance posted by the city, the question is drafted to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. City of Stow.
Council debate and split
Supporters on council argue that the mayor, law director, and finance director have gone years without meaningful pay adjustments and that six-figure salaries are now the going rate for comparable positions in other communities. They say the update is about attracting qualified candidates and keeping current leaders from falling behind financially.
Critics and skeptics have zeroed in on the automatic raises, especially the inflation-based formula. They warn that tying increases to CPI-U could erode voter oversight over time and create budget pressure in years when inflation spikes. Some members want clearer limits on how big those automatic bumps can get.
Council President Kyle Herman supported using an inflation-based adjustment. Councilman John Baranek called it unfair to freeze elected officials’ salaries for long stretches. Councilmember Matt Riehl countered that future increases should be linked only to the raises granted through collective bargaining, while Councilmember Kelly Coffey backed higher base pay but rejected the CPI-based mechanism, according to reporting by Cleveland.com.
How voters would decide
Stow’s charter requires that any increase in compensation for elected officials go to the voters, so the council cannot simply approve these raises on its own. The ordinance would send the pay question to the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Stow City Charter Section 4.15 requires that the ballot language spell out both the percentage increase and the new salary figure. The ordinance builds that into the proposed question and also specifies the effective dates: Jan. 2, 2028, for the new $100,000 base salaries and Jan. 2, 2029, for the start of the annual cost-of-living adjustments, if voters approve, as per the City of Stow.
What comes next
Council members say they expect to keep revising the wording before it is sent to the Summit County Board of Elections, leaving some time to haggle over exactly how the automatic raises would work, Cleveland.com reported.
Residents who want a say in the six-figure discussion can track upcoming agendas, follow new drafts of the ordinance on the city’s website, and show up at council meetings before the question lands on the 2026 ballot.
