Candidates Asked to Keep Council a Volunteer Body

A citizens’ group that includes two former mayors is asking candidates for City Council to pledge not to make their positions full-time paying jobs.

In a letter written by former Mayor William Thomson Jr. to all 12 council candidates and 10 mayoral candidates in the March 9 elections, the newly formed Campaign to Preserve Pasadena’s Citizen-Council asks them to sign a pledge by Feb. 1 that they will keep the City Council a volunteer body that is a “public service, not a career.”

The group also wants candidates to pledge to maintain a city manager form of government, in which day-to-day operations of City Hall are the responsibility of the city manager, and to keep council compensation at the traditional $50 per meeting.

Until last November, council compensation was set by the City Charter at that amount. Then voters approved Measure O, which allows a special council-appointed committee to recommend a new pay level for council members.

The pledge drive comes as the council is slated to vote Feb. 22 on the committee’s recommended pay raise, which has not yet been decided.

“We are now at the crossroads in the civic life of Pasadena,” Thomson said. “On Feb. 22, the council will make a fundamental choice: Are we to continue as a city of volunteers in which service on the council is not a profession, or are we to become a city run by highly paid, professional politicians?”