Manhattan Beach City Council Denies Itself a Pay Raise : Budget: Members bow to pressure from former city officials, vote down $250 increase. Supporters say the current wage keeps many from serving.

One thing seems certain about the Manhattan Beach City Council: It’s not a place to get rich.

And according to three former top city officials who railed against a proposed 125% monthly pay hike for the council Tuesday night, that’s the way it should be.

On the silver anniversary of its last pay increase, the council bowed to economic and public pressure and passed on an opportunity to more than double its current monthly pay of $200. The council moved to re-evaluate the proposal in next year’s budget.

“It’s not that the city can’t afford it or you don’t deserve it,” said Russ Lender, a former councilman who left the council in 1986. “It’s the principle.”

Lender, along with former Mayor Bob Holmes and ex-Councilwoman Jan Dennis, argued that serving on the council should be a matter of civic duty. Raising council salaries, they asserted, might corrupt the city’s sense of community spirit--even if it is only $450 a month as proposed.

“The thing that makes local politics effective is that it’s part-time volunteer work,” Lender said. “It’s something you do because you want to give back.”

But City Manager Bill Smith, who has watched four of his council pay increase motions shot down in three years, and current Councilwoman Connie Sieber fear that the low pay keeps many beach residents from serving. The last time council members had a raise, Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House.

“The job should not be for the elitists,” Sieber, an airline flight attendant said. Sieber said her monthly council salary sometimes doesn’t cover expenses incurred while serving on the council.

Even with the proposed salary hike, the council’s pay would still rank among the lowest in the beach cities. Only Hermosa Beach, which pays its council members $300 per month, would be lower. Neighboring council members in Redondo Beach make $638 a month, Hawthorne pays $560 and El Segundo $483.

“I think a city with this kind of budget can afford enough cash that will allow everyone in the city to run for City Council,” Smith said. “This is a democracy.”

But Holmes said looking only at the council’s monthly salary is misleading. Between monthly auto and medical allowances of $285 and $225 respectively, in addition to a $1,500 yearly expense account, the council’s total benefits package is compensation enough, Holmes said.

“I believe this (raise) far, far, far exceeds any expenses that accrue to a person by virtue of their service to the City Council,” Holmes said. Through a remarkably stable sales tax base, Manhattan Beach has been largely spared the budgetary woes currently dogging other South Bay communities, who are facing significant cutbacks. But with the state threatening to tap city coffers to cover its $11-billion budget shortfall, the timing for a pay increase could scarcely have been worse.

“Shoot the (former) council members in the foot that didn’t put the proper pay increases in,” Bruce Ponder, a Manhattan Beach resident, told the council.

Lender called for the elimination of the council’s car allowance, which he termed inappropriate in a four-square-mile city.

Sieber disagreed.

“We’ve got these (former) council people who come down here and now try to make this package look so big. Of course, they never mentioned their car allowance when they were on the council,” Sieber said. “Now, all of a sudden there’s this big inflated package. Well, baloney.”