$20,000 Pay Hikes Quietly OKd for Council Deputies

Constrained by law from granting themselves large pay raises, Los Angeles City Council members have quietly authorized new rates that could boost salaries for their top staff members by $20,000 a year.

Council members said the raises are necessary to keep top aides from leaving city government.

The pay rates, approved unanimously two weeks ago, were buried in the arcane language of a routine personnel ordinance covering 26 city departments. The rates apply to two categories of council deputies.

The City Council agenda contained no hint of the raise, and the ordinance was passed without debate on March 30. Mayor Tom Bradley signed it into law five days later.

Despite their unity on the matter, several council members interviewed Thursday said they are less than happy with the action, because it means their top deputies could earn as much as $76,463 a year--$15,000 more than council members get.

“I’m not going to pay anybody in my office more than I’m getting,” said Council President John Ferraro.

It is up to individual council members whether to authorize the raises for specific deputies. There was no immediate indication Thursday whether any planned to grant the raises.

The issue is especially delicate now as City Council members are seeking voter approval for a June 5 ballot measure that would raise their own pay of $61,522 by 40% to $86,157.

The pay raise is tied to a broad ethics-in-government measure, and some council members have predicted that voter opposition to the raise is likely to bring about the defeat of the entire package.

Voter approval is needed for council pay raises that exceed 5% a year. However, the council has the authority to set the pay levels of its staff members.

Before the latest staff raise was approved, the top pay allowed for a chief deputy was $56,125. Clerks, secretaries and other lower-ranking aides make substantially less.

The money is paid from the $667,658 office budget allocated to each of 14 City Council offices. The council president’s office, which has extra responsibilities, gets $705,513.

The council has not allocated additional money to pay for staff pay hikes allowed under the ordinance.

“All this ordinance does is give them the ability, within their budgets, to pay their people more if they want to,” said William McCarley, the council’s chief legislative analyst.

The origin of the staff raise proposal remained murky Thursday. McCarley, whose office drew up the ordinance, said he could not recall who gave the instructions to draft it. “It was kind of one of those things that just happened,” he said.

Council members said the idea has surfaced periodically and has been discussed informally for years.

“It is a fact that a lot of good people leave because we don’t have the capacity to pay them what they can earn in the private sector,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, who says he lost a valued deputy to private industry several months ago.

“We were limited by budget reasons what we could pay him,” Bernson said. “We offered to raise him to the highest level we could, and it still wasn’t enough.”

Bernson said he does not mind paying a subordinate more than he is paid. He said other council members are willing to do the same if it means keeping key personnel.

“We need qualified people in order to do our jobs,” Bernson said.

Asked if his own chief deputy has requested a raise, Bernson said, “I would imagine he will.”

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores said, “We want for our offices the very best that we can get, and it’s important to have continuity as well.

“I’d like to make more than my deputy, but I don’t feel that I should hold them back,” Flores said. “Frankly, I probably won’t use it because I have such a large staff and I try to treat everybody fairly.”

Flores said that her staff of 18 in five offices already has overextended her budget.

“I’m really stretched and many of my employees are underpaid,” she said.

Councilwoman Joy Picus said she recognizes the problem but has some difficulty accepting the solution.

“The problem has been that it’s hard to hire chief deputies,” Picus said.

But is she willing to pay someone on her own staff more than she makes? “I don’t love that idea,” she said.

City Council staff members apparently have not rushed to request pay raises. Four top deputies interviewed Thursday said they were unaware that they are even eligible for the raises.

“This is really news to me,” said Greg Nelson, chief deputy to Councilman Joel Wachs. “I usually know just about everything that happens around here, and this is a surprise.”