Pasadena Board May Try Again for Pay Hike, Elected Mayor

The Board of Directors may revive for the ballot two proposals rejected by voters in 1988--increasing salaries for city directors and allowing voters to elect the mayor directly.

City Director Jess Hughston last week proposed a second try for both measures, saying he still believes public sentiment is behind the proposals.

“The City Charter commission came up with such a complicated thing (in 1988) that it was turned down,” Hughston said. “But 58% of the voters approved the idea in an advisory vote two years before.”

On Tuesday, Hughston found support among other city directors who indicated their willingness to place both ideas on the ballot. Although they delayed until Feb. 27 a decision on whether to create a seven-member citizens’ committee to study the citywide elected mayor idea, they took immediate action on the salary increase.

City Atty. Victor Kaleta was directed to prepare three versions of a salary increase measure, one of which could be approved by the board Feb. 27 and placed on the June ballot. The options are a simple across-the-board increase, an increase to be indexed to the cost of living, or an increase 2 1/2 times the average salary received by council members in certain other cities in California--the complicated proposal turned down by voters in 1988.

Director Rick Cole, who supported the idea of a salary increase, pointed out that the current payment of $50 per meeting, or up to $250 a month, was set in 1968.

Cole said half-jokingly that some Pasadena residents are convinced that the board must be receiving bribes to compensate for the meager salary.

“They think it’s nuts to send people with baby-sitter salaries to guard over a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar corporation,” he said, referring to the city budget.

Cole asked city staff members to translate the 1968 salary into 1990 dollars, an amount he estimated would be between $900 to $1,000 monthly. The board also asked for a survey of council salaries in cities of comparable size, such as Anaheim, Glendale, Burbank, Riverside and Fullerton.

In reviving the pay increase proposal, Hughston noted that directors usually spend 30 to 50 hours a week on city business, including Tuesday board meetings that last seven to 10 hours. The low pay and long hours mean that only the wealthy, the retired or the financially self-sacrificing can serve as city directors, Hughston said.

“It shouldn’t have to be a financial burden to be a city council member,” Hughston said.

Whereas the board appeared ready to take on the salary increase proposal immediately, it hesitated over how to approach the citywide elected mayor proposal.

Pasadena has seven political districts. The board’s seven members are elected in district-only races to serve four-year terms. The mayor is selected by the entire board and usually is the most senior member. If a citywide elected mayor proposal were adopted, city voters would chose the mayor directly.

In reviving the idea, Hughston said that under the current system, board members concentrate mainly on district concerns, not on overseeing the entire city.

“It all boils down to accountability,” Hughston said. “Someone needs to be accountable for the whole city.”

Under the present system, only the city manager, not an elected official, carries responsibility for the entire city. City Manager Don McIntyre said a change to a citywide elected mayor would attract more experienced and capable candidates for the city manager’s job because larger, more urban cities tend to have citywide elected mayors.

The proposed reform is especially appropriate now, Hughston said, because the 1990 census will require city districts to be geographically redesigned. However, Cole noted, results from the census will not be available until 1991, which would mean that November, 1991, would be the earliest opportunity to place the citywide elected mayor proposal before the voters.

The board said a citizens’ committee could tackle related issues, such as whether an eighth district would be needed to avoid tie votes under the proposed system, and whether the mayor would serve a two-year or four-year term. Also to be decided would be the time of year in which the mayoral race would be run, either at the same time as board member elections, or during state elections in November--either of which could have significant impact on political power in the city, Cole noted.

Only City Director Chris Holden and Mayor William Thomson seemed unenthusiastic about the plans for a citywide elected mayor and creation of an eighth district. Thomson said he had no opinion on the proposals; Holden said Pasadena is too small for such a system to succeed. He pointed out that eight city districts may make sense in a city like Long Beach, which has a population of 414,289, but not in Pasadena, with only 130,000 residents.

Given Pasadena’s typically low voter turnout, creating an eighth district--and reducing the size of the original seven to do so--could allow relatively small numbers of voters to influence election results. “A hundred people can decide who sits here,” Holden said. “I’m not supportive of it, but it seems the majority may be.”

The previous proposal to reorganize city government came in January, 1988, after nearly three years of study by a city-appointed Charter Study Committee. The plan would have added an eighth member to the Board of Directors and an at-large elected mayor in order to avoid tie votes. Monthly salaries of $1,200 for city directors and $2,400 for the mayor were also proposed, as well changing the Board of Directors’ name to “Pasadena City Council.” The idea was defeated by voters in June, 1988.