With Pay Unchanged Since ‘68, Council to Consider Review Proposal

The Pasadena City Council agreed to discuss a proposal next week for a ballot measure that could result in a pay raise for its members after Councilman Chris Holden convinced his colleagues to reexamine the $50-a-meeting compensation set during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Holden urged his colleagues to consider an April ballot measure mirroring one approved by Los Angeles voters in the 1970s that governed salaries until 1991 and led its council members to become the highest paid in the country.

Holden is proposing to establish a committee to review council pay every other year and recommend what it should be. He said that under the measure the Pasadena council would appoint the panel and would be allowed to accept or reject the committee’s recommendation. Council members agreed to discuss the plan and other pay-related options on Monday.

The council pay system has remained the same since 1968 despite efforts to change it as recently as six years ago at the ballot box.

Without reform, Holden, who is unopposed in the upcoming March council election and slated to rotate into the mayor’s seat, warned his fellow council members that only retirees, the wealthy and lawyers will sit on the body in the future.

“It is a class issue,” Holden said. “I have to ask myself why did nobody else run? I’d like to think it’s because I’m doing a good job. But it’s very difficult to encourage people to run for public office.”

He said the recent filing for bankruptcy of Mayor William Paparian and the financial struggles of previous mayors did not influence his proposal.

Nonetheless, other council members, while indicating a willingness to vote on some form of pay reform, greeted Holden’s suggestion as no more than a starting point for discussion.

“I don’t think there is a ghost of chance that the public is going to pass this,” said Councilman William E. Thomson Jr. “This is folly. It is a nonstarter.”