By JIM BUTLER

Ball officials will hold a public hearing on May 21 regarding a proposed amendment to the ordinance setting their pay.

The proposal was introduced at the April board of aldermen meeting.

Advertising of it and the hearing to come does not enumerate details.

The ordinance being amended was adopted in December 2022. It set the mayor’s salary at $2,769.23 per pay period, 26 periods annually; the police chief at $2,307.69; the town clerk at $20 hourly; and aldermen at $1,000 monthly.

An amendment adopted in January of this year set the clerk wage at $21.80 hourly.

Under state law local governments are prohibited from reducing an elected official’s pay unless effective at the expiration of a current term, but are permitted to increase it, or their own, at any point.

For historical perspective — the Ball website town ordinance section has not been updated since August 2019. At that time the mayor’s pay was listed at $2,270 per period, the chief’s at $1,587.37 under a 2015 ordinance.