Fresno council revives a thorny issue: pay raises

Published online on Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2006

Originally published in The Fresno Bee and on FresnoBee.com on July 13, 2006.

Big bucks, contentious politics, nervous elected officials and a passionate public debate wait in the wings.

That's right -- the Fresno City Council is once again thinking about giving council members a hefty pay raise.

And, as usual, the issue is far from simple.

A divided council last month directed City Attorney James Sanchez to write an ordinance that would give a 46% raise to council members and a nearly 31% raise to the mayor.

Council members now make $44,511 a year and the council president makes $49,680. The mayor makes $99,360.

The council on June 27 told Sanchez it wants to set council members' annual salaries at $65,000 and the mayor's at $130,000, effective when each begins a new term. No mention was made of a higher salary for the president.

The pay raises eventually would cost the city about $174,000 a year. The city's 2006-07 fiscal year budget is nearly $900 million.

The council could have something to vote on by Tuesday's meeting, but most likely it will be later this month or in August, Sanchez said.

Council Member Tom Boyajian brought up the issue for council members. Council Member Larry Westerlund asked that the ordinance include the mayor.

Raising elected officials' salaries is "an unpopular kind of thing to do," Boyajian told his council colleagues June 27. But, he added, Fresno is nearing a half-million in population and council members' duties are increasingly complex and time-consuming. It's a full-time job, he said, and council members should be paid for it.

Higher salaries also will mean more competitive races for council seats because potential candidates are more likely to run if they know victory won't mean a financial sacrifice, he said. Incumbents ran unopposed in two of the four council races in the June primary.

"I think an increase is just realistic for this City Council," Boyajian said.

Added Westerlund: "I've been doing this for a year and a half. You work your tail off."

Boyajian's motion passed 5-1, with Brian Calhoun voting no and President Jerry Duncan abstaining.

Raising council salaries is always a politically charged issue, said Max Neiman, senior fellow and an expert on local government with the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California. For starters, he said, determining what's fair is an inexact science since both sides can manipulate comparisons of salaries among cities.

Critics are already preparing for battle. Valley Taxpayer Coalition President Chris Mathys said he routinely worked 80-hour weeks with no expectation of a raise when he was a council member from 1997 to 2001. He opposed the last successful effort to raise council members' salaries, in 2000.

"The whole idea of being a council member is to serve the public," Mathys said. "If you're looking for money or a full-time job, then do something else."

Mathys said his organization will fight the proposed raises.

A long history

The 2000 pay raise boosted council members' annual salaries from $33,120 to their current levels. Then-Mayor Jim Patterson vetoed the ordinance, saying taxpayers opposed the raise. The council, by a 5-2 vote, overrode the veto.

The mayor's salary has remained unchanged since Patterson became Fresno's first "strong mayor" in January 1997 as a result of the city's charter revision.

The 2000 pay raise measure also directed the Civil Service Board to review elected officials' salaries in even-numbered years and make recommendations to the council. The board, appointed by the mayor, recommended no raises in September of 2002 and 2004.