Falls Church Council votes to get health-care coverage, pay raise – ARLnow

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The Falls Church City Council has approved a pay increase and health-care coverage for themselves and their successors.
The raise will go into effect a year from now, while Council members will become eligible for the city’s health insurance plan next month.
The two actions passed on votes of 5-1, with one Council member absent.
As expected based on previous discussion, Council members’ salaries will increase from the current $11,000 annually to $16,000. The salary of the mayor, a position selected by Council members from among their ranks, will rise from $11,500 to $17,000.
The state maximum for cities the size of Falls Church is $21,000 for Council members and $22,000 for the mayor.
Those in support of the pay increase said they were not doing it for themselves, but to broaden the pool of those who might want to serve.
“This hopefully will attract more people. It might just help them logistically participate on Council,” said Laura Downs, who was elected to the body last year.
Council member David Snyder, who voted against the pay raise, said elected officials were sending the wrong signal, given strained economic conditions across the region.
“I am just not in a position to support even the possibility of voting ourselves a salary increase in this environment,” he said.
Under state law, leaders of localities can only vote on pay raises in the year in which a majority of the governing body is to be elected. In Falls Church, that is 2025, when four of seven Council seats are on the November ballot.
Any pay raise approved in advance of such an election cannot become effective until the following year. Falls Church officials opted to set the effective date as July 1, 2026, which marks the start of the city’s 2027 fiscal year.
After conferring with the city attorney, Council members said raising the pay rate now would not preclude them from lowering it next year, if conditions warrant.
“We have that tool,” Council member Justine Underhill said.
For the purpose of health care, meanwhile, Council members will be classified as part-time employees, who get a 70% subsidy on the cost of health-care plans. (Full-time employees receive a 78% to 80% subsidy, according to city data.)
The cost to the city to provide the most expensive family plan for a Council member would be approximately $21,200 for the coming fiscal year, officials said.
Unlike the pay raise, which will not take effect until July 2026, the health-insurance opportunity will come into effect on July 1 this year.
Council member Erin Flynn was not at the meeting and did not vote on either resolution. The required public hearing for the pay raise drew no public speakers, while one speaker — City Council candidate Arthur Agin — said he supported giving health-care benefits to Council members.
In a previous discussion, Council members opted against consideration of adding the city’s elected leadership to the ranks of those eligible to participate in Falls Church’s pension plan.
Three incumbents will face off against three challengers for four Falls Church City Council seats on Nov. 4.
City election officials confirmed the successful qualifiers shortly after the 7 p.m. deadline on June 17.
Incumbents Laura Downs, David Snyder and Marybeth Connelly filed to seek new terms, while the fourth incumbent whose term expires in December, Debora Schantz-Hiscott, did not.
Also making the ballot were Arthur Agin, Brian Pendleton and James Thompson Sr.
The seven members of the Council are elected to four-year terms on a staggered basis. The terms of incumbents Erin Flynn, Justine Underhill and Letty Hardi run through 2027.
Hardi is currently serving as mayor.
Three constitutional officers have filed for re-election without opposition: Sheriff Metin “Matt” Cay, Commissioner of Revenue Thomas Clinton and Treasurer Jody Acosta.
Filing for four School Board seats were Lori Silverman, Sharon Mergler, Anne Sherwood, MaryKate Hughes and Kathleen Tysse.
Tysse, Silverman and Sherwood are incumbents.
A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.
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