LOS ANGELES : Raise Has Few Takers Among City Officials

To most cash-strapped workers, an automatic 8% pay raise would be cause for celebration--maybe even a reason to take the day off and go on a shopping spree.

Not so for elected officials in the city of Los Angeles who were awarded such a raise Jan. 1, six months before many of them face reelection and three months before having to balance a city budget as much as $200 million in the red.

So nearly all the elected officials eligible for the raise have turned down the money or vowed to donate the extra cash to charity or other worthy causes.

The raise comes because of a 1990 voter-approved ethics package that ties the pay of elected city officials to the salaries of Municipal Court judges. The raise is a combination of the 5% increase that took effect last year and a 3% raise provided this year.

Only City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and City Atty. James K. Hahn have taken the politically perilous position of accepting the raise. Hahn declined to comment and all Ridley-Thomas would say was: “I’m not interested in posturing.”

Councilman Joel Wachs took somewhat of a middle ground: He accepted a 5% raise in July and promised to donate this year’s 3% raise to police in his northeast San Fernando Valley district.