Council moves City Council members are ready to nix pay increases given by the Salary Commission to them, the mayor and his top two aides.
to nix pay raises
A committee OKs a resolution
to turn down salary hikesBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comThe Council's Policy Committee, made up of all nine Council members, voted 6-1 to approve a resolution rejecting the increases.
Councilman Steve Holmes was the sole dissenting vote. Members John DeSoto and Duke Bainum were not in the room at the time of the vote.
The Council will vote on it May 29.
The action will save taxpayers only about $30,000, said Policy Chairman John Henry Felix.
"This is a symbolic thing," he said.
The Salary Commission voted last month to give 3 percent pay increases to the mayor, Council members, nearly all appointed department heads, their deputies and city attorneys.
The exceptions were the police and fire chiefs and their deputies, who the commission suggested should get 5 percent raises.
The entire commission package would cost taxpayers about $136,600 more in the city's $1.02 billion operating budget.
The resolution approved yesterday nullifies not only the pay raises for the Council members and mayor, but the managing director and deputy managing director as well.
A majority of Council members, however, rejected a plan introduced by Councilman Jon Yoshimura to nix the proposed raises for department heads, their deputies and city attorneys as well.
"These are appointed positions directly under the mayor, and I think we need to set an example not only as elected officials, but as appointed officials that we're asking the public to do with less and we all should as well," Yoshimura said.
Mayor Jeremy Harris, like Yoshimura, wanted all department heads' salaries to stay the same.
Felix and Councilman Gary Okino, however, noted that agency chiefs should get higher salaries to attract qualified applicants.
"If we want better-qualified managers, we have to pay them a little bit more," Okino said.
The police and fire chiefs would see their paychecks increase to $104,958 from $99,960.
Their deputies' pay would rise to $99,603 from $94,860. Other department head salaries would rise to $99,807 from $96,900 while their deputies' pay would rise to $94,554 from $91,800.
Holmes said the Council's rejection of the raises nullifies the hard work done by the Salary Commission.
"There are other ways to find budget cuts," he said.
City rules say six members of the Council must vote to reject part or all of a recommendation made by the Salary Commission to overturn it.
The commission's recommendation called for the mayor's annual salary to go to $115,566 from $112,000. Council members' pay was to rise to $44,651 from $43,350. The managing director's pay would have increased to $110,313 from $107,100.
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