Panel Urges Doubling Pay for Council : Government: A Long Beach task force also recommends strengthening the mayor’s power to veto City Council actions.

The mayor should have more power and City Council members should make more money, according to a task force that will present its recommendations to city officials next month.

The committee, formed to evaluate the new, full-time mayor’s position, concluded that the structure of local government was generally working well. But the group decided that the mayor’s veto power should be strengthened and that the salary of the part-time council members should be doubled from $17,500 to $35,000 a year.

However, the committee rejected the idea of giving the mayor a vote on the council. “If the mayor had a vote, it would create the possibility of him being a super councilman instead of a mayor,” said the committee’s chairwoman, Elaine Hutchison. “They wanted the mayor to retain a citywide focus.”

Ernie Kell, elected last year as Long Beach’s first full-time citywide mayor, said he “had no problem with the recommendations.”

Kell, who earns $70,956, said that the city’s nine council members work a “tremendous” amount of hours at their part-time jobs and deserve more money for their efforts.

He added that he would not have objected to the mayor having a vote, but was satisfied with strengthening the veto.

When the new mayor’s post was created through a voter-approved amendment to the City Charter in late 1986, the position was given very little real power. The mayor makes appointments to city boards and commissions, with the council’s approval, and can veto council actions, but he has no council vote and his veto can be overridden by a simple majority, or five votes, of the council.

The task force is recommending that another amendment be made to the City Charter that would require the council to muster six votes to override the mayor’s veto.

The recommendations will be presented to the City Council next month, which can either reject them or place them on the ballot next year for a citywide vote.

Two members of the committee, called the Charter Amendment Task Force, abstained from voting on the group’s final report Wednesday night. Sid Solomon of Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a citywide political organization, said he did not support a stronger veto.

“It undermines the power of each council person,” Solomon said, adding that it is often difficult to round up just five votes to get social programs approved.

Renee Greenfield of the League of Women Voters also said she could not support the recommendations because her organization has never taken an official position on the full-time mayor’s job.

Councilwoman Jan Hall, who ran against Kell last year, said she endorsed a stronger veto because it would encourage the mayor to take a position on issues. “My feeling is that there needs to be more accountability in the mayor’s office.”

Councilman Tom Clark, who is running against Kell in next April’s election, said he was disappointed that the task force was not recommending a vote for the mayor, which would make him a legislator. “I don’t think (a non-voting mayor) really serves the community as well as having a mayor locked in as a true legislator.”

The task force is also suggesting that the mayor create two positions on his staff, one for a policy analyst and one for a public information officer. The new posts would not have to be approved by voters.

BACKGROUND The task force’s recommendations will be presented to the City Council next month, which can either reject them or place them on the ballot next year for a citywide vote.