Council at Odds Over Automatic 5% Pay Increase : Budget: Two members say elected officials should forgo automatic increase. Others call the move grandstanding.

Whether they like it or not, elected officials in the city of Los Angeles are due for a 5% pay raise Jan. 1.

But two City Council members, concerned that it would be impolitic to accept a raise amid tough labor negotiations and a severe budget crunch, are urging their colleagues to give the money back.

The officials’ salaries are tied to those of Municipal Court judges under the ethics reform package approved by voters in 1990. The judges, in turn, receive the same raise received by state employees.

So on Jan. 1, City Atty. James Hahn, City Controller Rick Tuttle, Mayor Richard Riordan and all 15 members of the council are scheduled to receive 5% more in their paychecks.

On Friday, council members Laura Chick and Zev Yaroslavsky said they will turn down the raise, which would boost council members’ salaries to $95,214 from $90,680. Chick also introduced a motion, which will be considered by the council Tuesday, calling on all the city’s elected officials to join them.

“We are not going to take the pay increase,” said Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s Budget and Finance Committee. “I cannot imagine that (any elected officials) would take a pay increase at a time when we are asking our own employees to make a sacrifice.”

Turning down the money--$78,000 in the city’s $8.9-billion budget--is mostly a symbolic move.

But elected officials, who have gone without raises for two years, are in the midst of labor negotiations with police officers and many other employee groups that have not received recent raises. In addition, the city faces a $125-million budget shortfall next fiscal year and just laid off a handful of employees.

Union representatives said a 5% raise for elected officials would create an uproar among their members. But at the same time, they said, it would strengthen their argument that the city has the money to pay employees more.

“I hope they do take a pay hike so they give us one too,” said Bob Duncan, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Assn.

Some elected officials immediately embraced the idea of giving up the raise.

Tuttle, who controls the city’s purse strings, agreed that he ought to set an example during these tough economic times by refusing the raise. Councilmen Marvin Braude and Richard Alarcon also jumped on board. Riordan, who took office July 1, already forgoes his salary--except a symbolic $1 a year.

Hahn said through a spokesman that he would make a decision about the raise based on the city’s financial picture early next year.

Some others took umbrage at Chick and Yaroslavsky trying to dictate the salaries of all the rest. They said each individual ought to decide what to do with his or her salary, but none were willing to say that they would accept the raise.

“I have a distinct aversion to legislating other people’s morality,” Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said. “I would hope that council members are giving some of their money to charity. But we should not tell them to do so.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas called Chick’s motion an attempt at one-upmanship.

Councilman Nate Holden, who two years ago gave back a chunk of his salary to pay for police foot patrols in his district, called it grandstanding, although he said he would probably go along.

“I absolutely believe that everyone should make up their own mind,” Chick said. “But we are public figures. This is public money. What I’m doing is not grandstanding. It’s about a message coming from the entire body.”

Biting the Bullet

Two council members have suggested that elected city officials forgo a 5% pay hike that is set to take effect Jan. 1. Here are their current salaries, and what they would be if the raises kick in.

CURRENT WITH 5% RAISE City Attorney $108,816 $114,256 City Controller 99,748 104,735 Council members 90,680 95,214 Mayor* 117,884 123,778

*Mayor Richard Riordan is voluntarily accepting only $1 a year as his salary.

SOURCE: City of Los Angeles