Pay increase would make Richmond City Council and mayor the highest paid in Contra Costa County

Richmond City Council is poised to get a big salary bump this year, under an ordinance introduced Tuesday that would increase the salaries of council members and the mayor by 80%.

Only a couple residents questioned the salary boost, which the council spent half an hour defending, with each presenting an argument to justify the motion.

“These jobs actually are 24/7 jobs,” said Mayor Eduardo Martinez, whose salary would go from $3,875 a month to $6,875 a month.

The mayor was not permitted to vote on his own raise, which all six council members supported. But the law does not prohibit council members from voting on their own raises, which would bring their pay to $2,524 per month, a wage they all supported. The raises would cost the city about $118,000 annually.

The ordinance has to go through a second reading before it is passed. It would be the first raise for the council and the mayor since 2007.

“What we have are the employees saying they want an 80% pay increase and then they get to vote on whether to award themselves a wage increase,” said resident Don Gosney during the public comment period. “Outside of elected officials, in what world does this make sense?”

A residents watching the meeting online questioned why the raise couldn’t be more incremental.

The council members pointed out that even with the raise, the pay isn’t one they could live on and is not commensurate with their heavy workload, which includes taking calls from constituents at all hours and spending hours researching issues coming before the council.

Council Vice President Claudia Jiménez said that if the community wants a council that is representative of the city, it has to make the job more sustainable. If not, the position would only be available to people who could devote the time without much compensation, namely those who are wealthy, retired or are supported by a spouse.

“More than anything else, it’s an equity issue,” she said.

The raise would make Richmond’s City Council and mayor the highest paid in Contra Costa County, according to a compensation survey presented with the ordinance. It would make the mayor’s salary second among comparable Bay Area cities, after Berkeley. And it would make the council salary third, after Berkeley and Sunnyvale.

First term Councilmember Doria Robinson said when she was elected, she didn’t realize that in addition to City Council, she also would be on nine committees and commissions, each with their own meetings and issues. For someone like her, who already has a full-time job, that means 18-hour workdays are routine. The public, she said, doesn’t see how much time city council members invest in the job.

“It is so much more work than meets the eye,” she said.

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