Guthrie voters will head to the polls Tuesday, April 4 to decide on amending the City Charter to increase the pay of Guthrie City Council members and the mayor.
Voters will be asked to increase their pay to a $600 stipend per month. Currently, each official receives $1 per year, according to the City Charter.
The City Council approved the measure on a 5-1 vote with Ward 3 Councilman Tracy Williams voting against it. Ward 1 Councilman James Long was absent from the meeting.
Ward 2 Councilman Brian Bothroyd said he brought the measure before the Council, saying other communities across Oklahoma have increased their stipends.
“I started looking at the compensation of a dollar, and the compensation of some other communities out there, and wanted to bring it to Council,” he said. “A lot of the communities out there, Edmond included, made a change in July 2021 where they went from $350 a month per Council person, to $700 (a month), and that is in their charter. It is all over the board out there in terms of compensation. Oklahoma City was $20 a month at one point, and now they are $30,000 (plus) a year.”
In other matters, the Council approved the Guthrie Police Department to enter into a grant agreement for Victims Advocacy Services with the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma (ITO).
Chief Don Sweger said the Guthrie Police Department would receive $667,373 over a four-year period from the ITO for Victims Advocacy Services. The Guthrie Police Department has been working with the ITO since 2014, when Sweger was hired.
He said GPD has two victim advocates funded through the Office for Victims of Crime (VOCA) grant funding.
Established in 1988 through RAISES » PAGE 4 an amendment to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) of 1984, OVC is charged by Congress with administering the Crime Victims Fund (the Fund). Through OVC, the Fund supports a broad array of programs and services that focus on helping victims in the immediate aftermath of crime and continue to support them as they rebuild their lives.
“The last couple of years, due to COVID, (VOCA) has decreased that (grant funding) a little bit,” Sweger said. “This year, we are working on the current grant, and they asked us to come up with a sustainability plan, which means that they (VOCA) are going to have to do some deep cuts. I sat down and worked with the Iowa Tribe, and they are willing to fund us this $667,373 for doing what we have been doing the last three or four years and helping them out when they need (victims advocate) help.”
Sweger said the Iowa Tribe will pay 100% of salary and benefits for four years for one of Guthrie Police Department’s existing victim advocates, and the other victims advocate would be funded through this year’s VOCA application funding request.
Sweger told the Council that the ITO will allow the Guthrie Police Department to purchase one new pickup, two trailers and a storage shed.
“We (victim advocates/volunteers) move a ton of victims (out of their residences),” he said. “We load furniture, bedding, dressers on a trailer if we can find one, and drive it wherever they have a place to bring it to.”
The Council also approved the purchase of a 2023 Ford F-250 Crew Cab pickup truck from John Vance Fleet Services for $50,683, utilizing the Oklahoma State Purchasing Contract.