By Becky Killian, Staff Writer

City employees will receive an eight percent raise in 2025, while emergency responders will each get a $7,000 raise. Those are the most recent numbers approved by a majority vote during the Monday, Sept. 9, meeting of the Salem Common Council. The raises don’t apply to elected positions.

Council members who voted in favor of the raises were Dan Libka, Dylan Moore, Steve Crane, and Randy Lee Jr. The opposing vote was cast by Roger Pennington.

The latest vote came on the heels of two special Common Council meetings during which the struggle of attracting and retaining quality public safety employees was discussed. Many towns, cities and counties have difficulty offering competitive wages to public safety employees, which can lead those employees to take more lucrative jobs elsewhere.

After those special meetings, the Council approved a $5,000 raise for each police officer and fire fighter and a six percent pay increase for all other city employees effective in 2025.

Before the Sept. 9 vote that increased the raise for emergency responders, a representative from Reedy Financial, the city’s financial consulting firm, explained that the 2025 budget revenue would be sufficient to cover the additional costs; however, “minor” revenue shortfalls could occur in 2026 and 2027.

The 2026 and 2027 budget forecasts include three percent raises for all city employees.

Moore asked Salem Police Chief Eric Mills if he would be willing to enact a hiring freeze during the two years of forecasted shortfalls if it is deemed necessary. Mills didn’t dismiss the possibility outright; however, he did say he would need to consider the impacts it might have.

Libka pointed out the dangers that emergency responders face.
“There’s always a chance that something bad is going to happen,” Libka said, adding that the city’s civilian employees needed to be considered, as well.

Pennington said the city’s starting salaries aren’t as low as they may seem when you consider paid holidays, retirement pensions, and clothing allowances.

Libka made the motion to increase the emergency responder pay raises to $7,000 and to give all civilian employees an eight percent raise in 2025 provided the budget can accommodate those increases. His motion was then approved in the majority vote.

During the special meetings, officials also approved a $2,000 stipend for police and fire personnel and a $1,500 stipend for all other city employees for this year; however, the payment of those stipends is contingent upon whether Clerk-Treasurer Sally Hattabaugh can find the funds in the current year’s budget to cover them. As of Monday, Sept. 16, Hattabaugh had yet to find the funding for those stipends.

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• Government
• Elections
• Federal

• Government
• State of Indiana

Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against an Indianapolis car dealer alleging the dealer illegally rolled back odometers on vehicles sold to unsuspecting consumers believing they were purchasing lower-mileage vehicles.

The lawsuit alleges that KBB Auto Sales LLC — along with owners and employees Brandon Billingsley, Shannon Hayes and Nicolas Fortinberry — rolled back odometers by a combined total of more than 14 million miles on 216 known vehicles.

“This outright fraud unfairly gives a bad name to the good and honest people working in the used-car business,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Worse than that, these unethical tactics deceive consumers who buy these vehicles with rolled-back odometers. They wind up with higher-mileage cars and trucks with more wear and tear than they thought.”

The lawsuit alleges that the odometer tampering violates the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, the Indiana Odometer Act, the Federal Odometer Act and the Motor Vehicle Unfair Practices Act.

Attorney General Rokita seeks injunctive relief, consumer restitution, treble damages, civil penalties, costs and other relief.

“We will always work to hold these businesses accountable when they engage in this kind of misconduct detrimental to consumers,” Attorney General Rokita said. “And we will always work to get restitution for Hoosiers who have fallen victim to such reprehensible schemes.”

Attorney General Rokita offers the following tips for Hoosiers shopping for used cars: 

• Do your research and know your budget prior to going to the dealership.
• Test drive the vehicle in a variety of conditions: highway, city streets and stop-and-go traffic.
• Get a vehicle history report to check for potential odometer issues, prior accidents and damage, salvage, rebuilt or flood damage title brands.
• Have an independent mechanic inspect the vehicle. 
• Check whether the vehicle has any open recalls, including safety recalls. This information can be obtained at safecar.gov.
• Ask to inspect the vehicle’s title, including the odometer disclosure. 
• Closely inspect the final paperwork to ensure the price and terms match what was negotiated.
• Get all promises from the dealer in writing, typically on the “We-Owe” statement.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is standing up for young people’s First Amendment rights in a brief arguing that government cannot compel students to use other people’s “preferred pronouns” in violation of their own deeply held beliefs. Rokita and a likeminded coalition of attorneys general have taken on rogue school administrators across the country, who now use “anti-harassment” rules to force students into navigating and conforming to the bizarre world of transanity – or face very real consequences.