Lakeville's 2012 Budget Increases City Council Expense Accounts

Tensions continue to bubble on City Council, this time erupting over council member compensation and expense accounts.

The 2012 budget includes a $250 increase in expense accounts for each council member, upping the total from $500 in 2011, to $750 in 2012.

And at the final City Council meeting of 2011, held on Dec. 19, the issue was a surprising bone of contention.

Shortly after the motion to approve the 2012 budget, Council Member Matt Little introduced an additional motion to keep the allowance at $500.

Little said he kept his expenditures at $484, and pointed to the as evidence the increase for council members was unjustified.

“We are increasing expense accounts two weeks after firing an employee,” Little said.

Mayor Mark Bellows disagreed, pointing to last year's council vote lto reduce expense accounts from $1,350 to $500.

“I will not let you get away with saying we have an increase in any way,” Bellows said.

Even with a $250 increase, the allowance is still $600 less than it was in 2010.

Little's motion failed on a 2-2-1 vote, with Bellows and Laurie Rieb voting against, and Little and Kerrin Swecker in favor. Council Member Colleen Ratzlaff-LaBeau abstained, saying she doesn't use much of the expense account.

Following the meeting, Bellows told Thisweek Newspapers he was frustrated with Little and his motion.

“(Little) bringing it up at a final budget vote without telling council members beforehand is a statement of his unwillingness to work together as a team," Bellows said to Thisweek. “There’s just not a spirit of colleagues working together. I think it was a grandstanding effort on (Little’s) part for the purpose of his own political advancement.”

Little has announced he'll be running against Bellows for mayor in 2012.

Bellows told Thisweek Newspapers that he drives about 1,800 miles a year for council related activities. That amounts to $936 based on the IRS' standard mileage rate of 52-cents per mile.