The Byrnes Mill Board of Alderpersons agreed Aug. 21 to give a pay raise to Melinda Benedict, the second one she received since May when she was named the city administrator. With her latest raise, her pay increased from $35 to $40 an hour.
Melinda Benedict
Based on a 40-hour week, that brings her pay to $83,200 a year.
Benedict was promoted from city clerk to city administrator on May 1, and at that time her pay was raised from $23 an hour to $35 an hour.
It’s unclear whether she continues to handle city clerk duties or whether Byrnes Mill officials continue to search for a new city clerk.
Board members did not discuss Benedict’s latest $5 an hour pay raise before or after voting for it at their Aug. 21 meeting.
The board voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance authorizing the raise. Board member Bob Prado was absent from the meeting.
According to the ordinance, the pay raise was to go into effect upon the approval of the board and the mayor. Rob Kiczenski, the mayor, also was absent from the meeting, and as of Monday, he had not responded to a text message asking if he had signed the ordinance and asking for a comment about why city officials wanted to give Benedict another raise.
Benedict did not respond to an email asking for a comment about receiving the raise, as well as questions about her background and about the city’s search for a new city clerk.
She took over as city administrator following Adam Thompson’s departure in November 2023. Former retired Byrnes Mill City Administrator Debbie LaVenture came out of retirement to fill in as interim city administrator and help train Benedict to fill the position.
Benedict lives in the Festus area and started working as an administrative assistant for the city of Byrnes Mill in spring 2023, later being promoted to the city clerk position.
Other actions
At the Aug. 7 Byrnes Mill Board of Alderpersons meeting, the board members voted to raise the pay for the city prosecuting attorney, Steven Sokolik, to $900 per docket. When he was hired in March 2023, the city agreed to pay him $750 a docket.
According to the city’s website, Byrnes Mill holds two municipal court dockets each month.
It’s unclear if Sokolik was still being paid $750 before the raise on Aug. 7, and Benedict and Kiczenski did not answer an email asking for Sokolik’s previous pay.
Also on Aug. 7, the board voted to approve a Police Department pay schedule, with pay ranging from $22 an hour for new hires and recruit officers to $27.38 an hour for sergeants with at least one year of experience to $66,150 a year for a captain.
When the board signed off on the police pay schedule, there was no discussion about whether the schedule was increasing the pay for the city’s officers, and neither Benedict nor Kiczenski responded to an email asking for a copy of the previous pay schedule.
The Leader submitted a Sunshine Law request on Aug. 14 for information about both the prosecuting attorney’s raise and previous pay and the police pay schedule, and after a reminder about the Sunshine request, Benedict sent the following response on Aug. 21:
“The City of Byrnes Mill, Missouri is in receipt of your records request pursuant to the Sunshine law. Due to the nature of your request, we anticipate that it will take longer than three (3) business days to complete due to the required staff time for research and compiling the records related to your request. I anticipate that your request will be completed in the next thirty (30) days. At that time, I will notify you of any costs associated with the release of the records. Please notify me as to whether or not you would like the City to proceed in light of the fact that there are costs associated with your request.”
As of Monday, the Leader was waiting to receive the information.