Park City leaders consider doubling mayor and council pay

Park City leaders were preparing to weigh a pay package that would more than double elected officials’ wages, lifting Mayor Ryan Dickey to $116,666 a year starting in July and each of the five council members to $58,333. The city’s current compensation page shows Dickey now earns $55,208.67 in wages, plus $27,276 in health benefits or cash in lieu and a $3,000 car allowance, while each council member receives $28,519.57 in wages and $27,276 in benefits.

The timing placed the proposal inside Park City’s regular budget machinery, where the fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 and final adoption was moving toward June 12. City budget materials said council would hold separate public hearings on compensation ordinances for executive municipal officers, elected officials and statutory officers, and state law now requires a separate hearing before approving a budget that includes a raise for an executive municipal officer, even if it is held the same day as the budget hearing.

Compared with other Utah cities, the proposal would still leave Park City below Salt Lake City’s full-time elected pay, but it would push local compensation far beyond some resort-town peers. Salt Lake City’s FY 2025-26 schedule puts its mayor at $220,235 and council members at $55,058, while Moab pays its mayor $44,620 and each council member $36,751. Councilmember Diego Zegarra has said Park City has “generally lagged behind other comparable jurisdictions in the area,” and pointed to Summit County compensation that is around $70,000.

That is where the optics sharpen. Dickey’s current term runs from January 2026 to January 2030, and the mayor is Park City’s chief executive, presiding over council meetings and voting only in a tie. Former Mayor Nann Worel had estimated the job could take up to 50 hours a week and a council seat 25 to 30 hours, a reminder that the debate is not only about money but about how much the city thinks public service in an expensive mountain community should be worth. With housing, transit and broader budget pressures already in view, the decision is likely to land as a test of whether residents see modernization, or self-dealing.