Readers React: L.A. benefits from having high-paid City Council members

To the editor: Members of the Los Angeles City Council certainly are overpaid compared with other elected officials, but I’ll take a bit higher pay in exchange for attracting qualified people. Third World police are underpaid, I hear, but they make up for it with bribes. (“What are L.A. City Council members doing to earn their lavish salaries?,” Editorial, Feb. 9)

This editorial is petty. A symbolic pay cut isn’t going to put a dent in the city budget, but it might narrow the field of qualified, noncriminal candidates who will run for the office.

Kurt Osenbaugh, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thank you for your editorial on gold-plated council salaries; it is well done and important. Setting the pay between $100,000 and $120,000 per year, down from the current $184,610, should be about right.

I would predict the number of resignations as a result of this pay cut to be exactly zero.

Dan Huntington, Pacific Palisades

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