DOWNEY : Council to Receive Three Years’ Back Pay
It’s pay-back time.
The city has returned $17,466 to City Council members to partially compensate for scheduled pay raises that never took effect.
Because of a staff error, a 1987 ordinance providing council members with annual salary adjustments was not implemented. Even though the council went eight years without a raise, the city attorney’s office recommended that officials only receive three years’ back pay. State law limits back pay in certain situations, said Lowell Williams, city finance director.
Councilwoman Diane P. Boggs will receive $3,691; Councilman Robert S. Brazelton, $3,722; Mayor Barbara J. Riley, $3,665; and council members Joyce L. Lawrence and Gary P. McCaughan, $3,198.
Former council members will not be reimbursed. None of the previous officials have requested compensation, Williams said.
Returning the raises for the last eight years would cost the city up to $55,000, Williams said.
Lawrence said she was not surprised that the mistake went unnoticed. “It showed that we weren’t focused on our pocketbooks, we were focused on the affairs of the city,” she said.
After the error was detected in March, the council members’ stipends went from $365 a month to $430. The mayor’s pay jumped from $474 to $559.
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