After going without a raise for nine years, the Encinitas City Council has decided to hike council pay by 45 percent.
The proposal, approved 3-1 by the panel Wednesday night, will require a second vote and would kick in after the November 2018 election. Three council seats will be up for grabs that year, so it’s possible some council members who voted for the increase won’t reap its benefits.
The new rate is based on what state law allows given the city’s population size, said Mayor Catherine Blakespear. It translates into a 5 percent boost for every year the council went without a raise.
“The question is what entitles us to an increase, and put simply, we have weighty responsibilities that require long hours that are worthy of fair recompense and to me fair recompense is to follow the state law that dictates pay,” Blakespear said before voting in favor of the pay hike.
Council pay varies widely in San Diego County and Encinitas sits somewhere near the middle of the pack. According to the state controller’s database, Encinitas council members earned about $20,000 in total pay and benefits in 2015, compared to the similarly sized National City, whose council members earned $28,000 — roughly the same as council pay in Oceanside, a city three times as large.
Under the Encinitas proposal, the council’s base pay would increase from $1,186 a month to $1,719.70. The city’s mayor receives $100 more a month than the council members.
The council’s pay last increased in December 2008. In 2010, the council debated a pay raise, but ultimately decided against it.
“Historically, across this and other cities, any discussion of salaries for doing a public service job like this is a hot coal that no one wants to touch, and for many years in Encinitas it has not been touched,” Blakespear said.
Just before their terms ended in December, former councilwoman Lisa Shaffer and former mayor Kristin Gaspar recommended placing the latest pay raise proposal on the council’s agenda.
Wednesday night’s vote was 3-1, with Councilman Mark Muir opposed.
“I’ve thought about it and I don’t think I’ve ever approved a pay raise at any of the boards I’ve sat on,” Muir said, adding that he tells people he didn’t take those kinds of jobs for the money. “What I tell people is I want to give back to the community.”
Muir, a retired city fire chief who worked for more than 30 years and now is eligible for an employee pension totaling more than $180,000 a year, said he also didn’t think departing council members should have the option of later getting city retirement benefits based their council salaries. He said the council should vote to ban that benefit.
His suggestion isn’t allowed under state law — council members can decide as individuals to opt out of the city’s retirement program, but it must be their choice to do so, according to the city’s finance department.
The other Encinitas council members, who all work in the private sector, said they didn’t seek election because of the job’s pay rate, but that they still think the salary ought to be increased.
“When people ask what I get paid, they are absolutely shocked to find out it isn’t a living wage and I explain to them that it is (technically) a part-time job,” Councilman Tony Kranz said.
Blakespear said she has had to cut back her hours as an attorney to accommodate her city duties, while newly elected Councilwoman Tasha Boerner-Horvath said there was no way she could now hold down a full-time job and give the attention to her council position that it deserved. The position’s salary makes it possible for people who aren’t wealthy and don’t have large retirement funds to become council members, she said.
Henry is a freelance writer in Encinitas.
