l Salt Lake City: $20,947

l West Valley City: $16,200

l Murray: $12,870

l Ogden: $8,589

l Provo: $9,576 ($12,000 proposed)

l Orem: $9,576

* Figures do no include retirement, medical, vehicle and other benefits. PROVO - "King George" may no longer wear the crown in Provo, but he's still looking out for the knights at his round table.

George Stewart, former Provo mayor and current City Council chairman, wants to raise council members' compensation by nearly $2,500, pushing their yearly salary to $12,000 - a sum he says compares more favorably to other Wasatch Front cities.

“If you look at the compensation paid at other cities . . . Provo is lower than about six or seven cities that are smaller than we are,” Stewart said. “As I looked at it, it's just not fair.”

A 1995 Provo ordinance places City Council members' pay at $7,512 per year. But thanks to cost-of-living adjustments since then, their yearly pay is now $9,576. Several Wasatch Front cities - Murray ($12,870), South Jordan ($10,188) and South Salt Lake ($11,016), to name a few - have smaller populations than Provo, but higher council salaries.

Stewart, sometimes dubbed King George during his mayoral rein in the mid-1990s, said he took a pay cut of $5,000 per month to serve on the council and has averaged 25 hours on the municipal job thus far. His concern, he added, is for other council members who spend equal amounts of time on the job, but don't have the same financial resources that he has.

“Often people are reticent to bring this forward, but I'm not afraid to,” Stewart said. “I figured I was in a position to do so, hopefully without being criticized. But if I am, I don't care.”

Stewart added most of his council colleagues have been privately supportive of the measure.

Councilman Steve Turley is not one them.

“It's embarrassing,” he said. “I didn't get involved [in municipal government] for monetary compensation.”

Turley said he was unaware council members earned salaries and benefits until after he was elected. In December, he added, he was further surprised when the council, while allocating funds for employees bonuses, voted to give themselves a bonus.

Former Provo Councilman Paul Warner said he, too, didn't know about compensation until he after was elected. However, having experiencing the committee meetings, city meetings, groundbreakings and other demands of the job, the proposed pay increase isn't a problem to him.

“Having been there and done that, I wouldn't be opposed to [council members] being paid $1,000 a month,” Warner said. “When you're looking at the [$146 million] city budget, it's not a major amount of money taxpayers are paying for a lot of dedicated service.”

The City Council will discuss the proposed increase today during its study meeting. If the proposal is moved to the regular agenda, council members could vote on the proposal in early March.