HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Administrator Drops Pay Request

City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga has given up plans for a $22,000 pay-and-benefit increase, acknowledging that it is “an inappropriate time” to seek a raise while many people are out of work and businesses are being forced to close.

Uberuaga, who earns $128,340 a year, is the ninth highest paid city manager in Orange County, according to a local survey. Huntington Beach has the county’s third largest population.

Uberuaga’s request for a pay raise was on Monday night’s City Council agenda. However, he said he withdrew the request voluntarily, not because there was pressure from the public or from council members put on the spot by the timing of the request.

Councilman Don MacAllister said Tuesday that council members were besieged with telephone calls and letters from angry residents opposed to the pay increase.

“He (Uberuaga) would have gone down in flames” had he not withdrawn the request, MacAllister said. “I don’t believe he would have received four votes (needed for approval) because of public pressure.”

MacAllister said he would have voted against the pay raise. So did Mayor Jim Silva, who said he has received about 20 calls a day “thanking me for being opposed to the raise.”

“A $22,000 pay raise is insensitive to the 9% of our population that is out of work, not to mention all those who have had their pay cut,” Silva said.

Councilman Peter M. Green said, however, that Uberuaga has been a very capable administrator “who’s saved the city millions” and deserves a pay increase.

Resident M. Madeline Andor told officials, though, that “it blows my mind” that the City Council could contemplate such a raise at this time.

Dave Sullivan, president of Huntington Beach Tomorrow and a frequent critic of employee pay increases, agreed.

“The fact that a $22,000 raise was even on the agenda is an affront to the people of Huntington Beach,” he said after the meeting Monday night. “Now let’s stop the 5% employee pay hike that will cost the taxpayers $4 million this year.”

Uberuaga, who became city administrator in 1989, passed up a pay increase last year because of the recession. Terms of this week’s proposed benefit package called for a 5% pay increase ($6,417), becoming effective next February, and a 6% increase ($8,085) to go into effect next August.

In addition, city taxpayers would have paid $7,500 into his retirement fund.

Uberuaga said he doesn’t expect to revive the pay issue until at least next year because of the tough economic times.