City Council Again Considers Increases in Salaries

Pasadena voters emphatically said no to a City Council pay raise last year, but council members may have found a way to raise their monthly salaries, perhaps by as much as four times.

The council voted on Tuesday to create a subcommittee to recommend salary increases for members of the Community Development Commission. The commission is the city’s redevelopment agency. Its members just happen to be the seven members of the council, wearing different hats at each of their Tuesday meetings.

Councilwoman Kathryn Nack, who with William Thomson and Chris Holden voted against considering raises for the commission, called the measure “not only dishonest, but it flies in the face of what the electorate has told us, twice.”

Said Holden: “It looks sleazy.”

Mayor Jess Hughston and Councilmen Rick Cole, William Paparian and Isaac Richard voted to consider the raises.

The City Charter requires a public vote to raise council salaries. But no such vote is needed to raise the commission’s pay.

Currently, council members receive $50 for each council and each commission meeting, up to a maximum $500 monthly. Both bodies usually meet consecutively, and council members get $100 a day in those cases.

The council salary has not been raised in 23 years.

In June, 1990, 56% of city voters turned down a proposed $935 monthly salary for council members; a council pay raise was also rejected by voters in 1988.

Despite the outcome of these votes, Hughston said the proposal to raise commission salaries is “not dishonest.” He conceded, however, that “it is less than direct.”

Hughston named Paparian and Richard to study the proposal and return next week with a pay increase figure.

Paparian and Richard said they do not have an amount already in mind. But Holden said City Hall staff members told him they have heard that the proposals would increase the possible monthly pay to $2,500 for the mayor and $2,000 for the council members, or $3,000 for the mayor and $1,000 for council members.

If council members raise their pay, it will come in the same year that city departments were told to cut spending by 7% to 9%, and raises for management employees have been delayed until later this year. The $273.5-million city operating budget, approved June 25, is $9 million less than last year’s.

Unlike most items on the council agenda, the pay raise proposal was listed without a sponsor. Asked about its authorship, Richard said, “Ask Paparian; he put it on the agenda.” Paparian responded, “Ask Richard.”

An increase will more than likely anger voters, Cole said. But he added that he’s willing to face the political heat because larger salaries will allow more people to hold political office, not just those who can afford it.

Cole, who is unemployed and supported mainly by his working wife, said he earned $4,000 last year.

He also said a survey of 220 cities statewide by the League of California Cities showed that 107 have higher council salaries than Pasadena. Many of the 107 are smaller cities whose elected council members, unlike those in Pasadena, do not oversee a stadium, a convention center and their own police, health, and water and power departments, he said.

In Pomona, a city with a slightly higher population than Pasadena, council members get $200 a month. Among other comparably sized cities, council members get $800 a month in Glendale and $803 a month in Burbank.

Two views on the raises

“Not dishonest, it is less than direct.” Mayor Jess Hughston

“It looks sleazy.” Councilman Chris Holden