After Receiving Two Pay Cuts, Mayor Asks Board To Fully Fund Salary

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI)- After having his salary cut twice within a year, Aberdeen Mayor Maurice Howard is now requesting board members fully fund his salary.

During Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Howard accused the board of illegally cutting his salary.

According to Howard, the board took the action without any policies in place allowing them to do so.

The board slashed the mayor’s salary by roughly $25,000 just over a year ago.

Ward 2 Alderman Doug Stone said the board did have the legal right to do so, citing Howard wasn’t fulfilling his duties as mayor.

On Tuesday, Howard made a recommendation to be reimbursed back pay along with his full salary.

However, board members took no action on the matter.

“As the mayor of a municipality I have the right to make any recommendations that I so choose,” said Mayor Howard. “All I did was make a recommendation. My recommendation was that the board gave me my salary back, and I said in my recommendation let the record show that the silence of the board of aldermen counts as a no vote, and so they were afraid of that and they decided to pretty much run away from it.”

“That’s not true, also he said that no response is a no vote, that’s also not true,” said Alderman Stone. “If we did not make a motion and a second and vote on it, it’s not part of the minutes.”

Along with cutting his salary a year ago, the board also voted for the mayor to return his city issued vehicle and gas card.