Council Raises Its Pay 8.8%; Mayor Objects : City Finances: Increase comes at a time when the financially troubled city is set to ask for major tax hikes.

Over the objections of Mayor Maureen O’Connor, San Diego City Council members Monday approved 8.8% salary increases for O’Connor and themselves, their first pay raises in three years.

The two-step pay increase takes effect July 1, when salaries for the eight council members will rise from the current $45,000 annually to $47,000. On the same day, O’Connor’s $60,000 salary will increase to $62,650.

Council members’ salaries will increase to $49,000 on July 1, 1991. O’Connor’s salary will jump to $65,300 the same day.

Monday’s approval of the recommendations by the city’s Salary Setting Commission came at a politically awkward time for the council, which today will consider requests for more than $300,000 to pay for new staff members in six council offices and the physical remodeling of two members’ offices.

Although the request is just a small portion of a proposed $4-million, mid-year budget increase, it has proved unpopular with some constituents, especially in light of the council’s warning that it faces a budget crisis in fiscal 1991 if more revenue cannot be found.

Last week, the council agreed to raise property taxes by $20 million and tentatively voted to ask voters for authority to generate an additional $81.7 million via a variety of new taxes. Mayor Maureen O’Connor Monday called for reconsideration of the $20-million tax increase, arguing that the increase should be placed before voters.

O’Connor cast the only dissenting vote on Monday’s salary increase, though Councilman Bruce Henderson, who was present for most of the rest of the council session, was absent. Council members Abbe Wolfsheimer, Ron Roberts, John Hartley, Wes Pratt, Linda Bernhardt, Judy McCarty and Bob Filner voted for the increase.

O’Connor argued once again that voters should approve the salary increases. “The salaries should go on the ballot and let the people decide,” she said. None of her colleagues voiced opinions on the politically sensitive issue.

Council salaries have not increased since July 1, 1987, when they rose from $40,000 to the current $45,000, as part of a two-stage increase approved in 1986. On July 1, 1986, their salaries increased from $35,000 to $40,000.

Similarly, O’Connor’s salary increased from $50,000 to $55,000 in 1986, and to the current $60,000 on July 1, 1987. The mayor does not take home all of her pay, choosing to devote $10,000 to supplement her staff’s salaries.

In a report to the council, Salary Setting Commission President John Nersesian said the pay increase recommendation “attempts to balance a fair compensation level, which considers the positions’ responsibilities, with the city’s overall fiscal and budgetary needs and constraints.

The commission recommendation came after two public hearings and six meetings at which the panel reviewed financial data.