LEWISTON — The city’s next mayor will get $300 more in his annual stipend, councilors and Mayor Larry Gilbert voted Tuesday night.

The decision means the stipend will go from $2,700 to $3,000.

But councilors didn’t have the votes to approve similar raises for their successors on the council and for the Lewiston School Committee.

The changes would have taken effect (and will take effect for the new mayor) for the next group of councilors and School Committee members to be elected Nov. 8.

The raises were all championed by outgoing Ward 7 Councilor Stephen Morgan, who’s not seeking another term. Morgan said councilors spend hours working for the city, attending as many as 45 Tuesday night meetings per year while also serving on multiple policy committees.

The city has not increased the stipend elected officials get since 1990, Morgan said.

“It’s been 21 years since we’ve last raised these stipends,” Morgan said.

Councilors had a plan to give all elected officials a $300-per-year raise in their packets. School Committee stipends would have risen from $1,200 to $1,500. City councilors’ stipends would have increased from $4,200 to $4,500.

Stipends would have increased by $25 per month for all 16 officials — eight School Committee members, seven city councilors and the mayor.

It would have been an annual increase of $4,800 per year for the city.

The increases would have kept Lewiston near the top compared to other Maine cities, according to city staff. While Portland’s councilors get a $5,813 annual stipend, the mayor gets a $65,000 annual salary.

Sanford’s elected officials get slightly more than Lewiston, but officials from Auburn, Augusta, Bangor, Brunswick, Scarborough and South Portland all pay their mayors and councilors slightly less than Lewiston.

Morgan said he preferred something more ambitious. He proposed giving elected officials $800 more per year, plus increasing stipends for the city’s appointed committees — the Planning Board, Appeals Board and Finance Committee. That package of raises would have cost the city about $22,000 more per year.

But Councilor Renee Bernier said it was the wrong time to raise stipends.

“With all due respect, with the economy the way it’s been, I totally disagree,” Bernier said. “To increase the city’s budget by over $21,000 is too much.”

Morgan’s proposal didn’t get support from his colleagues. Councilors voted three times on $300 annual raises for the mayor, council and School Committee.

City Administrator Ed Barrett urged councilors seeking office to abstain from voting on raising the stipends for the seats they were seeking.

Councilor Ron Jean, who is running for mayor, abstained. That vote ended in a 3-3 tie. Councilors John Butler, Larry Poulin and Tina O’Connell voted in favor of giving the mayor the $300 annual raise, while Bernier, Morgan and Mark Cayer voted against it.

Mayor Larry Gilbert cast the deciding vote, giving his successor a raise.

Both Butler and Cayer are seeking re-election. They abstained from the City Council stipend vote. It ended with three councilors in favor — Poulin, Jean and O’Connell — and Morgan and Bernier against. City ordinance amendments require four votes to win, so the motion failed.

With all seven councilors voting on the School Committee stipends, it failed by a 3-4 vote — with Butler, Poulin and Jean supporting it.

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