Council Stands Pat on Aides’ Pay Boost : City Hall: Members refuse Molina’s call to reconsider their authorization of $20,000 increases for top staffers.

In an unusually caustic session, Los Angeles City Council members on Tuesday refused to consider repealing a $20,000 hike in pay rates for their top aides and accused Councilwoman Gloria Molina of trying to embarrass them by publicly raising the issue.

Molina, who last month voted for the personnel ordinance that authorized the raises, said Tuesday she had never been told that it contained the pay-raise provision. The raise was “disguised” in the ordinance, she said, adding that she learned about it two weeks later from a story in the Times.

Her complaint prompted a torrent of criticism from other council members, who said most had been briefed privately about the matter. Some accused her of not doing her homework and reiterated their position that the raises are needed to prevent a “brain drain” of qualified staff members to better-paying jobs in private industry.

“She gets her jollies off by tearing down the council,” Councilman Hal Bernson said as Molina argued that the matter should have been debated openly.

In an 11-1 vote, the council refused to reconsider the raise. Even though Molina had requested the reconsideration, she ultimately voted to, in effect, table her motion. Only Councilman Ernani Bernardi voted for it.

Molina said she had no particular objection to paying staff members more money, but did object to the secretive way the council handled the matter.

At issue is an ordinance that gave council members the authority to boost the pay of their top staff members to $76,463 a year--$15,000 more than the council members themselves earn. The previous top pay allowed for a staff member was $56,125.

Council members are paid $61,522 and are constrained by law from raising their own pay by more than 5% a year.

The decision on whether to grant the staff raises is left to individual council members, who must allocate the money from their office budgets.

The raise authority was contained in an otherwise routine personnel ordinance affecting 26 city departments that was approved unanimously and without debate by the council on March 30.

The agenda for that day contained no mention of the new pay rates, nor did the lengthy ordinance, which listed pay rates by code but mentioned no dollar amounts.

“You’re making me sound like a stupid moron,” Molina said Tuesday as Councilman Nate Holden suggested that the information had been available. “You didn’t know either. Come on, cop to it,” she said. Holden did not respond.

At one point while Molina was speaking, Bernson inserted a finger in his mouth in a gagging gesture. Asked about it later, Bernson said the gesture was not aimed at Molina, but he had been joking around about another matter.

“I just think she needs to do her homework a little better and be more aware of what’s going on,” Bernson said. “She’s always trying to embarrass the council and she does it for her own elevation.”

Molina also was attacked by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who said she had hired an aide from her political campaign to work on her council staff. “You could be made to look just as bad, Miss Molina,” Yaroslavsky said.

“This is so demeaning,” Molina responded, adding that she had never tried to hide the hiring from fellow council members.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who presented the ordinance to the council on behalf of the personnel committee, which she chairs, said Tuesday that each council member had been briefed about the raises. Picus also said she had called the council’s attention to the raises contained in the ordinance during the March 30 meeting.

A review of an audio tape showed that Picus spoke about what she called a “routine personnel ordinance” for 27 seconds. She said that it made “changes . . . for the mayor and the council,” but did not specifically mention pay raises for council aides.