CARLSBAD COUNCIL GIVES ITSELF A RAISE

Members approve 3.5% increase, also OK bumps for city’s clerk, treasurer

Carlsbad City Council members approved a 3.5 percent pay hike for themselves and a 6.7 percent raise for the city clerk and city treasurer last week.

The increase comes out to about $76 a month for council members, who are considered part time and before Tuesday’s decision were paid $26,251 a year — $27,451 a year for the mayor.

The council reviews its pay annually and granted itself a 6.6 percent increase in compensation in 2022. The city clerk and city treasurer are also part time. They each receive $12,840 annually and had not received an increase since 2007, said City Manager Scott Chadwick.

A measure approved by Carlsbad voters in 2020 requires the council to review its compensation annually and allows an increase equal to the San Diego Regional Consumer Price Index, which was 6.7 percent. However, Mayor Keith Blackburn said the council should go no higher than the 3.5 percent recently granted to the city’s management employees.

“For us, the optics are not so good if we take more than employees,” Blackburn said.

Councilmember Teresa Acosta said she supported the 6.7 percent, noting that council members work long hours and put up with “verbal abuse” and other challenges, and that “no way someone could live on $2,000 a month in Carlsbad.”

“I’m not here for the money, but I just think that having a regular increase is the right thing to do,” Acosta said.

The council voted 3-1 for the increase, with freshman Councilmember Melanie Burkholder opposed, though she supported the raises for the city clerk and city treasurer.

“My point is more about the district that I live in,” said Burkholder, who represents District 1, the northwest quadrant that includes the Village and Barrio neighborhoods.

Plenty of families in her district live on $2,000 a month, Burkholder said.

Council members also receive a $4,200 annual car allowance, which is $5,400 for the mayor, a cellphone allowance of $540 annually, and insurance and retirement benefits.

The council and mayor also receive an additional $75 per meeting when they serve as the Community Development Commission, for a maximum of $150 a month, and an additional $100 per meeting when they serve as the Water Board, up to a maximum of $300 a month.