Elected Officials Find Other Uses for Raises : Finances: Some have turned down the 8% pay hikes, while a few vow to donate the funds to worthy causes.

To most 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 they face the task of balancing a city budget as much as $200 million in the red.

So nearly all the elected officials eligible for the raise scrambled for the moral high ground in the past three weeks, turning down the money or vowing to donate the extra cash to charity or other worthy causes.

The raise is the result 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 two officials, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and City Atty. James K. Hahn, have ignored the “politically correct” behavior of their colleagues and accepted the raise without apology.

Through a spokesman, Hahn declined to comment on the sticky issue. And when asked, all Ridley-Thomas would say is: “I’m not interested in posturing.”

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

Although most elected officials waived the raise last year, city bylaws require them to once again waive last year’s 5% raise as well as this year’s 3% increase.

In total, the raise amounts to an additional $7,000 or so for council members, who earn about $90,700 annually without the increase. Hahn earns $108,500 each year, and the raise amounts to an additional $8,700. City Controller Rick Tuttle, who also waived the increase, earns about $99,700 annually and would have pocketed an additional $8,000 had he accepted the raise.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who campaigned to be “the man tough enough to turn L. A. around,” continues to be the man rich enough to forgo all but $1 of his salary.

Council members who have waived the increase are Richard Alarcon, Richard Alatorre, Laura Chick, Ruth Galanter, Jackie Goldberg, Rudy Svornich Jr. and Rita Walters.

Accepting the raise but promising to donate the money are council members Hal Bernson, Marvin Braude, John Ferraro, Mike Hernandez, Nate Holden and Joel Wachs.

Bernson, for example, vowed to give the increase to police officers in his northwest Valley district, just as he did last year. “We won’t keep a dime of it,” said Bernson’s press aide, Francine Oschin. “It all goes to police.”

One of the bonuses of accepting the raise and then giving it away is that those officials can increase retirement benefits because the benefits are calculated based on a city employee’s annual salary and the number of years the employee has been on the city payroll.

Some elected officials said they were blindsided by the raise issue.

Hernandez said he didn’t even realize that he had a raise coming until he got his first paycheck last week. “I was caught off guard when I saw the extra $100,” he said.

Braude too seemed surprised by the additional money, saying he hasn’t even decided what to do with the extra cash. He said the money will either be donated to police in his district or a domestic violence shelter.

“I haven’t made up my mind yet,” he said.