BURBANK : Pay Hike Approved for City Council

The Burbank City Council is getting a 3.4% pay raise that will match the salary hike given to city employees earlier this year.

The raise, approved by a 4-0 vote Tuesday night, gives each member a monthly salary starting in January of $830, up from $803. It is the council’s first raise since February, 1991.

Councilman Dave Golonski was absent.

City workers were given a 3.2% increase. The council’s raise rounds off to be 3.4%. The council has passed up salary increases, which could legally have been taken at 5% a year, because of difficult financial times. In 1992, all city employees voluntarily passed up their raises to help balance the city budget.

On Tuesday, Councilwoman Susan Spanos argued for raising the City Council salaries even further, “to make it possible for those with average or lower income to run for the council.”

Spanos, a new council member who is carrying out a campaign pledge not to accept her council salary for at least her first year in office, said the personal costs incurred as a council member--for community dinners, missed work, child-care expenses--can be prohibitive for some people.

The council on Tuesday could have increased its pay to $923 a month. “That’s way too much,” Mayor George Battey Jr. said. Spanos suggested raising it to $866.

“We have many people who want to serve and can’t make the financial sacrifice,” said Spanos, who agreed to a proposal by Vice Mayor Bill Wiggins to set the new salary at $830 a month to match the 3.2% increase given to city employees.

The council also approved a pay hike for City Clerk Marge Lauerman, raising her annual salary from $57,492 to $60,192, making it a salary equivalent to that of City Treasurer Jim Rogers.