CARLSBAD COUNCIL WAIVES SALARY INCREASE

Carlsbad City Council members agreed last week to waive a pay increase for themselves this year, and they asked for staffers to write up a measure for the Nov. 3 ballot that, if approved, would tighten controls on any future increases.

“It’s very difficult for a city council to decide how much they will give themselves as a pay raise,” said Councilman Keith Blackburn at the council’s meeting Wednesday.

The ballot measure was first proposed in 2018 as a way to make salary adjustments more uniform and avoid the appearance of self-interests, but it never went to voters.

Blackburn said he had initially supported a salary increase this year, but he changed his mind after the council voted earlier in the evening not to increase wages for the city’s parttime employees.

Like most other cities, Carlsbad is feeling the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis and is looking for ways to cut costs.

The part-time council last discussed pay raises in 2018, when they approved an ordinance that reduced the maximum increase of 5 percent annually to equal the local consumer price index, which is about 3 percent. They also included a specification that the proposed increase would be considered each January and either adopted or waived, and that future raises could not be retroactive.

The council’s last increase was in 2015, when they set their salaries at $24,626 a year and the mayor’s at $26,399 for their first increase since 2009. They also get a car allowance of $450 monthly for the mayor, $350 monthly for council members, and an additional $75 for each Community Development Commission meeting they attend (up to $150 a month) and $100 for each Carlsbad Water District board meeting (maximum $300 per month).

Although the ordinance passed in 2018 specifies that the council will consider a salary increase annually, until Wednesday the council had not discussed compensation again.

The proposed ballot measure would affirm the consumer price index as the limit, and prevent a future council from increasing it without another citywide vote. The county registrar of voters estimates that it would cost the city $60,000 to $100,000 to add the measure this November.

Salaries for Carlsbad’s elected officials, with a population of 116,000 in 2018, are about midway among those of their counterparts in other North County cities, a staff report shows.

Oceanside, population 176,000, pays its mayor $32,928 and council members $30,528 annually, including car allowances and stipends for other meetings. Vista, with 102,000 residents, pays its mayor $32,659 and council members $31,459, plus stipends for other meetings and a $90 monthly cell phone allowance.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com