Mayor Greg Bryan will be paid $400 a month and Vice Mayor Al Montoya will be collecting $300 a month. At a July meeting the Tusayan Council voted to pay mayors $400 a month and council members $300 a month.

Bryan and Montoya will get paid after the August elections. That’s because the council technically can’t vote itself a pay raise, but they can approve raises for the next elected council member. Because Bryan and Montoya are running unopposed in August, they get the raise.

Bryan, Montoya, Craig Sanderson, and John Reuter voted for the pay hikes. Councilman Fitzgerald voted no saying the council needed to consider more projects for public use.

Prior to the vote, serving on the Tusayan Council was an unpaid position. Montoya and Bryan had been leading the charge for a payday. Montoya floated the idea last year.

Reuter said the pay would, “promote diversity in the council makeup.”

What went unsaid was the money and resources Stilo and its business partners have pumped into the candidacies of candidates they agree with. Anyone who opposes Stilo can expect legal hassles and attack ads. Just ask Clarinda Vail and Bill Fitzgerald. Both have been on the receiving end of Stilo attacks. Maybe that’s the real reason more people won’t challenge the power structure.

This is not the first financial gain for Montoya related to politics. Two years ago he picked up and $8500 win bonus after the incorporation vote.