For years, state law had limited Los Altos City Council salaries to $300 a month. A new law allows for that figure to increase dramatically, prompting council members to review their salary options.
After discussions that centered on comparative compensation in other local cities Los Altos’ size, council members asked city staff to draft an ordinance Jan. 23 that could maximize monthly salaries to $950 under the new law (based on population). A discussion of benefit options will follow.
Los Altos City Manager Gabriel Engeland said the council compensation ordinance is set to be on the agenda at next Tuesday’s council meeting (Feb. 13).
Prompting the discussion in the first place was the passage of Senate Bill 329, which went into effect Jan. 1. The law allows for up to $950 monthly for cities with a population of 35,000 or less (Los Altos is 31,701). In addition, SB 329 allows for council to make future increases by ordinance. Cities can also provide benefits to council members, and the benefits do not count toward salary as long as the same benefits are provided to employees.
The prospect of elected officials voting themselves salary increases often prompts knee-jerk reactions from some, citing an abuse of power. But council members agreed even a raise to $950 monthly does not approach a living wage. Further, some argue that a substantial increase from the paltry $300 a month could make a difference in a potential candidate choosing whether or not to run for council. East Palo Alto, for instance, has more than 1,000 fewer residents than Los Altos (30,034), yet currently pays its council members $7,200 yearly to Los Altos’ $3,600.
Vice Mayor Pete Dailey cited the hypothetical example of a single mother who would have to provide for child care for meetings that could go from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.
“This is more than just an effort to increase our paychecks,” Dailey said. “It is very much about bringing people in to serve, and eliminating some barriers for their service.”
Councilmembers Sally Meadows and Neysa Fligor traded arguments over what compensation amount would be fair. Fligor favored setting the salary somewhere in the middle, in comparison with similar sized cities. Meadows noted the addition of maximum salary with current benefits still put Los Altos in the middle in comparison with others.
Mayor Jonathan Weinberg, following a city staff-produced chart of local cities’ compensation, suggested taking the current average compensation figure of $33,672 annually for all cities, and making that Los Altos’ new combined salary and benefits figure.
“That brings us in line with the average total compensation of our peer cities,” he said. “I’m comfortable using the numbers that we have in front of us today, as opposed to trying to recalculate if and when someone changes their ordinance in the future.”
Council members accepted Weinberg’s suggestion.
“So what I’m envisioning is an ordinance comes back to us and there’ll be a proposed number by staff in the ordinance,” Weinberg said. “And then there’ll be a list of benefits that are offered to staff and the value of those benefits. And then council can consider those benefits, decide whether we want to include any of them and if so, which one, and we will have the information in front of us as to what the value of that benefit is.”
