Fountain Valley Council Members Vote Themselves a 90% Raise

Fountain Valley City Council members have voted to give themselves a 90% raise, bringing their monthly salaries--which have remained the same for 12 years--to $500.

The five council members, who now earn $262.50 a month, will not get the pay increase, however, until after the city’s Nov. 8 election.

The 3-2 vote for the salary hike came during a sparsely attended City Council meeting Tuesday night, at which only one resident--who supported the raise--spoke during public comments.

Those who favored the raise pointed out that the City Council could have given itself, by law, a 5% pay raise each year but had not done so since 1976. Mayor George Scott and Councilmen Fred Voss and James Neal voted for the raise; council members Barbara Brown and Laurann Cook voted against it.

$50 to$ 60 a Month

In increasing their salaries, the council members also eliminated their option to obtain reimbursements for city-related expenses such as community group dinners and mileage to such functions. Those expenses, according to a city staff report, have averaged about $50 to $60 a month per individual council member.

Brown--who said her council functions actually cost her money each month because she misses substitute teaching assignments--nevertheless opposed the 90% raise on grounds that “we knew what the salary was going into this job.” Also, she said, council members have been able to seek reimbursement since a resolution was passed about a year ago. That system “makes us more accountable,” she said. “The other thing is . . . I really have problems increasing our salaries if we’ve asked our department heads to keep their costs down.”

A staff report estimated that the proposed council salary increase from $262.50 to $500 a month would cost the city $14,250 a year.

Eliminate Expenses

But Scott proposed the raise and, along with it, the elimination of the expenses option, saying that “you can’t be reimbursed for every little thing you do, and you can’t hardly even keep track of it.”

Scott said that, since a city staff report estimated average monthly expenses submitted by the council members to be about $50 or $60, “we probably aren’t giving ourselves more than a $175-a-month raise.

“We’re all pretty good council members, and we deserve a raise,” added Scott, 55, an insurance company owner. “I know sometimes its not politically good to do. But that doesn’t bother me at all. And I’m up for reelection. The other thing,” Scott said, “we did a survey of the council salaries (in other Orange County) cities, and the average salary of a city in our population range (about 56,000) is about $450.”

By state law, Scott said, the council can raise its members’ salaries in relation to the city’s population; in Fountain Valley’s case, that would be no more than $500 a month.

“You can put in for (expenses), but I really don’t keep up with it,” Neal said. “I’d just as soon do away with the expenses altogether and have the salary increase. . . . Then you don’t have to fool around with putting down every little thing. I don’t have any quarrel with reimbursement. It’s just a pain.”