Councilors vote for pay bump; Tuma tops $203K

The members of the Owatonna City Council will receive an increase in their annual stipend paid to the city’s elected officials.

The ordinance passed on a 5-2 vote, with Councilors Dan Boeke and Don McCann casting the dissenting votes at the Oct. 20 regular meeting.

“I know it’s a small amount, but again, we need to lead by example,” McCann said. “We’ve asked our staff to look at reducing their budgets.”

The proposal is to increase the pay of the council president by $100 per month; the vice president’s salary would climb by $66.67 per month, to $1,250 and $1,166.67, respectively.

The remaining council members would see a pay hike of $83.34 each month, to $1,083.34. The mayor’s salary is proposed to be raised $123.34 per month, to $1,333.34.

The last time the salaries were reviewed was September 2021, for a change effective Jan. 1, 2023. The city requires a review of the salaries every four years; the state requires any change to elected officials’ salaries to occur after the next general election.

The increases total about $8,600 per year.

While he agreed with council member Nate Dotson’s assessment that the job “has definitely become more time-consuming and a little bit more involved than it was when I first got on this council,” McCann voted against the measure.

“The amount of time and energy that is required to do this position is a lot,” he said, “but I’m going to vote nay on this because we need to lead by example.”

He and Boeke also voted no during the first reading of the ordinance at the Oct. 6 meeting.

“Nobody does this for the money,” Boeke said at that meeting. “I think it’s an extra $80 a month the councilmen would receive. Perhaps that bump would encourage more participation in the council – more people running in the future. I don’t know, but I’m going to vote nay on this one.”

Tuma’s raise

The raise comes on the heels of a favorable review for City Administrator Jenna Tuma, the results of which were shared last month.

Both the summary of her evaluation – held in closed meetings over two days – and her compensation recommendation were shared via statements read by Mayor Matt Jessop and City Council Vice President Doug Voss, respectively, at the Sept. 15 city council meeting.

Tuma received high praise for her “leadership and modeling of the city’s values” in the performance evaluation of her first year in the role.

While the motion to grant her a raise did not mention specific rates or amounts, a public data request by the Steele County Times revealed Tuma’s salary for 2027 will be $203,257.60. She has received a nearly 14% increase since being promoted in August 2025 when her salary was at $178,900 for the first year.

In its response, the city said she will receive “the same wage increase provided to other City employees and be offered the same insurance benefits available to other City employees.”