Burbank Council to Vote on First Raise Since ’85

The Burbank City Council will vote tonight on whether to give themselves a 25% pay raise, which would be their first salary increase in five years.

The five part-time council members receive a monthly salary of $600. If approved, the pay increase would raise their salaries to $765 a month or $9,180 a year, beginning Jan. 1, said Christopher L. Foss, assistant to City Manager Robert (Bud) Ovrom.

Council members have not received a salary increase since Jan. 1, 1985, when a voter-approved ordinance went into effect setting salaries at the same rate that council members of similar-size cities receive under state law, Foss said.

The measure also required that a maximum 5% cost-of-living raise be voted on annually by the council, but the votes were never taken because of an oversight by city staff, Foss said. Staff members recently discovered the discrepancy while reviewing salary provisions for elected officials, he said.

If approved, the pay increase would represent the amount council members could have received over the last five years, Foss said.

Councilmen Thomas Flavin and Michael Hastings, both of whom favor the pay increase, said they spend an average of 20 to 30 hours a week on council business. “It’s almost a full-time job,” Flavin said. “A lot of time you have to take off your regular job to do it.”

No public hearing is scheduled on the proposed pay increase, but City Attorney JuliScott said residents can address the issue during a general public comment session at the beginning of the 7:30 p.m. meeting.