It may be fair to say the current members of Ironton City Council aren’t in it for the money.

At a salary of a meager $120 a month ($200 for vice mayor), council members aren’t exactly bringing home the big bucks in exchange for making the decisions that impact city residents.

It’s a job that very few people want, as made evident by last year’s election. Only three filed petitions to run for council by the deadline — only one an incumbent. Two more filed as write-in candidates, but voters had very little in the way of choices at the polls.

This week, members of council discussed the possibility of increasing the salary of members, which if such an ordinance would pass, would not go into effect until the next term.

The idea behind the increase is to incentivize people to run for office in future elections. While an increase of some kind may not be a bad idea, taking money away from other already low budgets to accomplish this would be.

While money is a motivating factor for many, the people best suited for the job are not the ones who only see dollar signs.

Ironton needs people who want to make a difference in the city and in the lives of its residents.

Unfortunately, taking the job requires horrible hours, the knowledge that you won’t be able to please everyone, and of course, low pay.

If council wants to increase the salary for future members, they must compare numbers from similarly sized cities and look at the budget to see what, if any, kind of increase would be possible without short-changing other departments.