Hoping to quell a swell of negative public opinion, Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey last week cut the salaries of two of his administration's highest paid appointees.

Carey's chief of staff, Hugh Chumley, now earns $91,000 a year. That's down from his salary the previous week of $96,997.

The mayor's special assistant, Susan Wilcox, now earns $87,086, down from $92,820.

The new salaries still represent a generous increase from what these administrators' predecessors earned. Before Carey took office a year ago the chief of staff salary was $76,921; and the mayor's special assistant position paid $72,223.

Even with the cuts Carey made this week, the chief of staff salary is still 18 percent above the previous administration; and the special assistant salary is now 20 percent higher. Carey defends the overall increases, saying that he gave his new appointees the higher salaries because he increased their workloads and responsibilities over their predecessors.

Carey said last Thursday that he made the salary reductions in response to a barrage of public criticism when the salaries were revealed last week.

"The perception was that (the salaries) were excessive," Carey said. "I've corrected that."

Comments posted online to a Peninsula Clarion story last week about the raises grew longer than the story itself. And borough assembly members reported getting a flood of e-mail messages and phone calls from residents criticizing the size of the salary increases.

"Well, you've got people here who're losing their jobs, and now I see where Chevron is laying off," said assembly member Paul Fischer. "I think you've got members of the public who don't like to see anyone in government getting a raise like that."

Borough Assembly President Pete Sprague of Soldotna said the new reductions should quell at least some of the public outrage.

"It's something, anyway," Sprague said.

But the flap over the salaries is just one example of the currently contentious relationship this past year between the assembly and the mayor.

Last Thursday, Carey lamented assembly actions earlier this year to block or reverse measures Carey said he wanted to implement to curb spending, including cutting funding for nonprofit groups. Carey also wanted to cut the property tax rate.

Sprague noted budget meetings of earlier this year when the assembly had asked for more detail on what the mayor was paying his people.

Carey didn't immediately supply that detail; the assembly approved the total budget anyway.

"Looking back, I think we should've just stopped right there," Sprague said.

"We just never thought that we'd have to ask the mayor what he's paying his department heads. It just never came up before."

Both Sprague and Carey said Thursday that they've been talking to each other more in the past week to try to rectify the rift that's grown between the assembly and the administration.

Larry Campbell is the executive editor of the Peninsula Clarion.