Cost of Larger Council Estimated

San Diego taxpayers would pay nearly $1 million to expand the eight-member City Council by two seats and a slightly smaller sum each year thereafter, according to a memo issued by City Manager John Lockwood.

Lockwood, who sent the memo Monday to Councilman Bruce Henderson, estimated the first-year cost of the expansion at $974,000 to $1.2 million, depending on decisions about allocation of City Hall office space.

In an out-of-court settlement of a 1988 lawsuit filed by the Chicano Federation, the council agreed in September to place a ballot measure before voters asking whether to expand the council from eight districts to 10, effective in 1993. The Latino-rights group, which had been seeking a 12-seat council, maintains that minority voting power would be enhanced by increasing the number of council members.

Voters will decide the issue next June. The settlement does not preclude current council members from campaigning for the defeat of the measure.

Chicano Federation Chairman Jess Haro said Friday that he will propose a four-year freeze on the council members’ total annual budget, which now stands at $3.1 million, and ask the council to include language in the ballot measure guaranteeing voters that the council expansion would not require additional spending.

Haro said the council members’ “bloated” staffs could be decreased, especially once they are representing smaller districts.

“All along, I’ve been aware that those who oppose this thing are going to oppose it on the basis of cost.”

Henderson, who asked for the analysis in an Oct. 20 memo, could not be reached for comment.

Lockwood’s base first-year estimate of $974,000 for expansion costs includes $782,000 for salaries and operating expenses for two new council members and their staffs, a figure determined by averaging the budgets of the eight council offices, he said.

It would cost $129,000 to reconfigure the Council Chamber, install telephones and buy office furniture, all of which would be non-recurring costs, he said. Leasing 2,500 square feet of office space for the two new representatives would add $63,000 to the total, he said.

There is no more room on the council members’ already crowded 10th floor for office space, Lockwood said. “If you add those two, where are you going to add them?” he asked.

If the council members took over another full floor of City Hall, forcing other workers elsewhere, the first-year cost would rise to $1.2 million, without major remodeling, Lockwood estimated.

Continuing costs would include the $782,000 for operating expenses, $63,000 for leased space and a $42,000 inflation factor, for a total of $887,000, Lockwood estimated. If the council took a second floor of City Hall, the second-year cost would rise to almost $1.1 million, he said.