Salary Commission
recommends 2%
raise for Mayor,
Cabinet, Council

The panel supports
steady pay increases
over catch-up money

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The city Salary Commission is recommending that the mayor, City Council members and department heads receive 2 percent pay increases.

The city's attorneys in the prosecutor's and corporation counsel's offices would also get a 2 percent increase through a revision in the salary range.

A public hearing on the recommendations is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. April 23 at the City Council committee room at Honolulu Hale.

The commission makes recommendations in the form of a resolution to the Council by May 1 each year. The Council, in turn, can choose not to accept the resolution, or portions of it, with a two-thirds vote.

The city has not yet released numbers showing how much the increases would cost taxpayers. However, the same group of city officials a year ago received a pay increase of roughly 10 percent which cost about $384,000 annually.

The last raise before that for department heads and elected officials was a 2 percent increase in 1997.

Commission members said the recommendation takes into consideration inflation and raises gained recently by other city employees through collective bargaining.

"The 2 percent the board felt was fair," said member David Wilson.

Merle Crow, another member, said he and his colleagues also want to move toward a philosophy of smaller, step increases rather than sporadic and larger catch-up raises.

"We didn't want the situation of going four or five years without a raise and then having someone come and say, 'Why are you giving them so much?'"

The Royal Hawaiian Band master previously was paid only $70,000, but commissioners chose to make that position's pay similar to that of other department heads after comparing the workload with the other city chiefs and the pay of bandmasters on the mainland. The current bandmaster is Aaron Mahi.

Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday he does not support the increases, noting that he opposed increases for other city workers who are members of unions part of collective-bargaining contracts.

Council Budget Chairman Steve Holmes said he doubts the raises would be rejected, even if there were philosophical objections, because of the small amount of money involved and the need for only six votes.

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City & County of Honolulu