IRON MOUNTAIN — Another attempt will be made to increase compensation for Iron Mountain City Council members that has been frozen at $10 per meeting since 1985.

Voters since 2013 have rejected several ballot proposals to increase council pay, most recently in August. The latest proposal — which sought a change in the city charter to raise council pay to $30 per meeting and capped at $1,500 a year — was rejected 565 no to 543 yes.

The city council Monday agreed to have a new proposal on the November ballot that would raise the pay to $25 per meeting with a corresponding annual cap. Ballot language will be prepared for review by the Michigan attorney general’s office.

City Manager Jordan Stanchina explained that without changes in the August proposal, the city by state law would have to wait two years before putting it on the ballot again.

Mayor Dale Alessandrini suggested $25 per meeting and the council voted unanimously to go forward with it. Council members Pam Maule and Cathy Tomassoni were absent.

Prior to the August vote, Iron Mountain voters had last been asked to approve higher council pay in November 2014, when a similar proposal was defeated 1,543 no to 575 yes.

In November 2013, an increase to $40 per meeting had been proposed with a maximum of $2,000 a year. Annual increases of no more than 2% tied to the Consumer Price Index were also included. That proposal was defeated 151 no to 73 yes.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the city’s new proposal is less than an inflationary increase. The bureau’s calculator indicates that $10 in 1985 has the buying power of about $30 today. Also, there is no provision for automatic increases, so any future change would require another ballot proposal.

After the August ballot defeat, the council had moved to put the question on the November 2024 ballot. They abandoned the idea, however, after learning the requirement to change the language left too little time to get attorney general’s approval.