Op-Ed: City Council Should Not Get Raises During Pandemic

$4204 monthly council member
$5255 monthly mayor

took a while to find it.
https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=16426

A lot more than I ever made, but they have to work a ton of hours. I topped out at 30-something thousand a year, after 5 years, working for the county, but I had great benefits.
I hope this is good information for those who think every governmental employee is a rip-off. I worked my ass off, regular unpaid overtime because bosses would ding me for that, and was regularly confronted with angry scary customers, because I worked for a department who ticketed people.

"In Santa Barbara, the council pay is dictated by city charter, not by the council itself. It goes up or down automatically based on fluctuations of the Area Median Income. The council vote ratifies those fluctuations."
https://www.independent.com/2021/04/28/santa-barbara-city-council-gives-itself-2-6-percent-raise/

I can't really berate them for such a small increase. It's not like they're our national reps, many of whom, from many states, are millionaires.

I'm still looking for source for City Council members' salaries.

There's this: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=16426

Shrug. If you're envious, get yourself a better job. I used to work for SB County at lowest levels. I tested in to getting an interview because first picks didn't take the job. I made 13-something$ per hour in the 2000's. The benefits were great. The stress, at a public counter, was HUGE.
Don't complain until you've fought for such a job.

Your anger is misdirected: https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/ "Price and Edwards calculate that the cumulative tab for our four-decade-long experiment in radical inequality had grown to over $47 trillion from 1975 through 2018. At a recent pace of about $2.5 trillion a year, that number we estimate crossed the $50 trillion mark by early 2020. That’s $50 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of working Americans had inequality held constant—$50 trillion that would have built a far larger and more prosperous economy—$50 trillion that would have enabled the vast majority of Americans to enter this pandemic far more healthy, resilient, and financially secure."

A citizen "revolt" is called for in SB. Band together and demand more accountability and real action(s) from the council, employees AND the overpaid City Manager. This city really, really needs a shake-up.

Anyone being paid by taxpayers should get increases in line with Medicare increases (or bank savings interest rates, currently 0.08%) Perhaps if politicians had something on the line, those increases would be more in line with actual inflation rates and police/fire/academia/road maintenance and all the rest would force the issue.

The real recipients of overly large salaries and benefits are the City staff starting with the City Administrator and senior staff.

In 2019, City of Santa Barbara employees cost us $105,558,916 in total wages plus $21,310,774 in retirement and healthcare.

Source: https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Cities/City.aspx?entityid=450&year=2019

Santa Barbara's Mayor is the 19th highest paid mayor in all of California.
Source: https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/PositionRpts.aspx?rpt=Mayors

Per CA Law, each council member should receive a salary of $746 per month ($8,952 annually). The salary for council members is as outlined and regulated by State law.

So, who decided they should make 5x that amount for about 20 hours of work per week, mostly just listening.

The optics here are particularly bad. The city is about to get a huge cash infusion from the feds, in the tens of millions. That will be used to shore up their coffers and keep paying their employees. Businesses went through hemorrhages in the last year. The city laid off their lowest-paid 400 workers. The people who MOST needed a job. Homelessness has exploded. There is no success here that justifies a raise, automatic or otherwise. It would have been a hugely symbolic and appreciated gesture for them to unanimously vote that raise down, to show that we're all suffering together, and are in this together.

A small increase to an already small salary. Goleta voters last voted on salaries with Measure W in 2018. What's the outrage? More compensation makes them more committed to the task, less prone to being bought be special interests, and more likely to be able to meet the high costs of living here. If the position doesn't pay well, all we'll get are retired or wealthy people that won't be representative of the working class.

They should be ashamed, "the optics are all wrong." Greed and selfishness are not what this country needs right now. They forget they are Public Servants.

I wish I could vote myself a raise.

Maybe they ought to take that extra 50 a week and have a BBQ for the homeless in the plaza every week...

It's 2.6%. That's less than most annual performance/cost of living raises in most private sector jobs. Salaries can't stay stagnant if we want to attract competent representatives.

How much anger can you have about such a small item? This raise to a mediocre salary is not going to do a thing to endanger the ability of the government to serve its people. Political show offs will 'decline' their salary I suppose but meanwhile the private sector grows increasingly wealthy and exercises its muscle by corrupting elected officials on a regular basis. We need to pay our representatives in such a way that they are not so easily bent. I say the raise if fine.

From what I understand, the raise is dictated by the city charter. I am not sure that the council had much choice in the matter. I agree it doesn't look to good and declining the raise would be a good thing. Maybe they will decide to donate their $50 per week raise to a community charity.