HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? : CITY COUNCIL SALARIES VARY WIDELY IN COUNTY

Anaheim City Councilman Fred Hunter isn’t one of those elected officials who is shy when it comes to talking about how much his time and services are worth.

And he has no apologies for voting to triple his own salary, a move that triggered a storm of protest in Orange County’s largest city and brought charges from fellow council member Miriam Kaywood that Hunter was motivated by greed and a quest for power.

“It is these kinds of high jinks and disgraceful behavior that keep people from running for the council,” she said.

A Different View

But over in Villa Park, they look on things a bit differently.

If you run for office there, don’t expect to get paid. No one does, not even the mayor.

“It’s just something we decided to do when the city was founded years ago,” said James Fasbender, an auto repair shop owner who moonlights as mayor. The no-pay policy, he added, keeps out “people who are in it for the money.”

On the basis of size alone, it is difficult to compare Anaheim (population 237,000) to Villa Park (population 7,000). But the issue in Anaheim has focused attention on one of the nagging old questions facing city governments: Just how much should part-time city councilmen and mayors be paid, and by keeping these salaries low are cities able to attract the best and the brightest?

Like the county itself, the salaries paid to mayors and councilmen vary wildly across Orange County. And because these are not full-time jobs, as they are in Los Angeles or San Diego, the salaries are generally quite low. No one gets rich strictly off public service here.

And that certainly applies to Villa Park and Seal Beach, the only two cities in Orange County that fail to provide anything for those elected to public office. “I don’t care. I’m happy with the way things are,” said Seal Beach Mayor Edna Wilson, 71. “I’m enjoying serving the community as best I can, and I didn’t go into it for the money.”

Wilson receives $125 a month in expenses. Just enough, she says, “to cover the cost of my gas running down to City Hall and back.”

But is $400, or even $600 a month, enough? Many councilmen complain that they spend long hours on city business, detracting from time they should be spending with their families or on their own businesses.

And with cities across the country facing financial problems, public opinion is against councilmen getting hefty pay raises, needed or not.

Because of state laws governing municipal salaries, not to mention a general reluctance by sitting councilmen to raise their own salaries, cities have come up with creative ways to boost councilmen’s incomes without actually raising the monthly stipend.

Some cities, for example, pay a low monthly stipend but allow councilmen to match, even triple their salaries by attending other city-related board meetings. That is what happened in Anaheim, where the council voted to pay itself extra fees for serving on two city agencies that meet four times a month.

Anaheim councilmen now earn an additional $150 fee for every Redevelopment Agency meeting and $50 for each Housing Authority session, in addition to $25 for councilmen and $50 for the mayor as expenses for attending council meetings.

Since the Anaheim council meets weekly--it sits as both the Redevelopment Agency and Housing Authority before each meeting--that comes to an extra $800 a month.

In Huntington Beach, the monthly take-home is only $175, but it is supplemented by a liberal expense fund that pays the mayor $477 a month and the councilmen $333. Councilmen also get $30 for each meeting of the Redevelopment Agency they attend.

Hunter, for one, is unapologetic about helping engineer the 3-1 council vote approving additional compensation for city councilmen, a move that will boost their monthly salary from $400 to $1,200.

“Look,” the 45-year-old attorney said, “this is not like being from Brea or Fullerton, this is a major-league city. There is something moving and shaking in Anaheim daily. We go out and talk to Disney, the Rams corporation . . . all the big mucky-mucks.

“We don’t want a situation like the Raiders leaving because we failed to communicate. And how do you do this? You have to spend time with people. It’s the old thing that you get what you pay for.”

Hunter said he routinely spends 30 to 40 hours a week on city business.

“And that’s a lot of time for only $12,000 a year,” he said. “Out of every 10 telephone calls I get, every four have to do with the City Council. I’ve got six messages on my desk right now, and four have to do with the City Council, not practicing law.”

Only by paying higher salaries, Hunter said, will Anaheim and other cities be able to attract qualified people who might otherwise be financially unable to serve in office. Setting salaries artificially low, he argued, only serves to attract two kinds of candidates: retirees, who have the time, or the wealthy, who have the money.

“Before Bill (Erhle) and I were elected, everyone on the council was over age 60,” he said. “The median age in this city is 30 or 33. I’d like to see someone 30 years old on the City Council. I don’t think that you get the cream of the crop involved in the governmental process. I just don’t think that the City Council should be exclusively for retirees or people who are independently wealthy.”

But Kaywood, a retiree who also sits on the Anaheim council, sees it differently. She was quite content to leave the monthly salaries at $400 a month, comfortable in her role as a public servant more interested in serving her community than making money.

“I have been on the council for 14 years, and I have never been so ashamed of something the council has done,” she said. “They got their hands caught in the cookie jar.

“You know,” Kaywood continued, “he (Hunter) ran for the office and he knew that it paid $400. It was in the charter, and it was clear what the job paid. I think the real issue is public service. If they felt it was worth more money, why didn’t they put it on the ballot and let the people decide instead of sneaking it in the back door with the Redevelopment and Housing agencies?

“To me, it’s a question of power and greed. They have managed to triple their salaries in a few months. They talk about attracting other people! Things like this keep people away, not the pay.”

Kaywood described the council’s action as particularly insulting considering the $8-million budget deficit facing the city.

In Irvine, where councilmen earn a flat $600 a month, Councilman C. David Baker said that while he believed that most public officials earn what money they make, “sometimes raising salaries is the wrong message to send.”

“At a time when we are facing financial crises in the city and when our city employees are not getting raises, it’s not something you want to do,” he said. “It is not so much the amount, but the precedent it sets as to city priorities. If our staff and the citizens have to live on lean times, then we should too.”

Baker, who is now running for the 40th District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Robert Badham (R-Newport Beach), said that generally “people run for office and serve in office not to make money but in fact to make changes, to give leadership. But that should not be a financially draining experience for them.”

“Their legitimate expenses should be covered, and beyond that there should be some stipend for what I would call intangible expenses . . . the phone calls you have to make from home, the lunches you’re buying, a lot of the services you render that cost you money.”

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, who like Baker earns $600 a month plus expenses, argued that “for the most part people are getting superb public service for next to nothing.”

“Some true out of pocket expenses are never compensated for,” he said. “We have council members who spend 30 hours a week on the job and do a good job of it. This council acts like a board of directors to a $40- to $50-million corporation, which is the City of Irvine.”

Agran said he was concerned that because of the salaries and the time demanded on councilmen, some sectors of society are not being properly represented on city councils.

“The truth is we are missing a lot of people who cannot spare 30 hours a week, people who cannot make that kind of sacrifice,” he said. “You want to be able to draw from the largest pool possible, but a consideration people make is the level of compensation for doing this job. Not that they expect to do well, but some may need $600 to $1,000 a month just to devote the time.”

Bill Curtis, a lawyer who will serve on Mission Viejo’s city council when it is officially formed later this year, estimated that he would lose a potential $125 to $150 for every hour he spends on city business.

“That’s what I’m billing people, and my stipend ($500 a month) will not even begin to cover that,” said Curtis, 32.

“But you can’t be motivated exclusively by the monetary rewards,” he said. “These are not full-time jobs. First of all I think of the city council position as a policy-making one. The staff implements the policy.”

“Most of us became involved in city government for a special interest or specific issue,” added Fountain Valley Mayor Barbara Brown, a substitute teacher who earns $300 a month. “Money isn’t the criteria, and I hope it wouldn’t be. We came in knowing what the stakes were.”

Newport Beach Mayor John Cox, one of the county’s highest-paid public officials, said that too many cities make the mistake of setting council salaries too low and then not raising them for five, six years.

Newport Beach, he said, ties its salaries to a cost-of-living index with an annual cap of 3%.

“I don’t know an employee or union or business that doesn’t demand a raise every year,” he said. “Isn’t a public official entitled to the same thing? If it were set as policy you wouldn’t get into the situation where you go four or five years and find yourself 25% low and vote yourself a raise and look like an idiot.”

Times staff writers Ray Perez, Andrea Ford, Lanie Jones, David Reyes, Nancy Wride, Steven R. Churm, Carla Rivera, Mariann Hansen and Bob Schwartz contributed to this story.

ORANGE COUNTY CITY OFFICIALS’ MONTHLY PAY

Council City Mayors Members Anaheim $800 $400 Brea $327 $327 Buena Park $500 $500 Costa Mesa $600 $600 Cypress $377 $377 Fountain Valley $262 $262 Fullerton $659 $559 Garden Grove $600 $486 Huntington Beach $175 $175 Irvine $600 $600 Laguna Beach $150 $150 La Habra $300 $300 La Palma $300 $300 Los Alamitos $300 $300 Mission Viejo $500 $500 Newport Beach $890 $595 Orange $600 $600 Placentia $150 $150 San Clemente $218 $218 San Juan Capistrano $300 $300 Santa Ana $200 $125 Seal Beach none none Stanton $283 $283 Tustin $400 $400 Villa Park none none Westminster $350 $350 Yorba Linda $150 $150

City Other Compensation Anaheim $150 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting and $50 for each Housing Authority meeting. $25 for council members and $50 for the mayor for each City Council meeting. Brea $30 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting, not to exceed four meetings a month. Buena Park $30 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting. $50 for each meeting of the Buena Park Foundation, which oversees cable TV service. Costa Mesa $30 for each meeting of the Redevelopment Agency, which averages once a month. $30 for each Traffic Commission meeting, not to exceed $60 per month. $75 for each Planning Commission meeting, not to exceed $375 per month. Cypress $125-a-month car allowance. Fountain Valley Some reimbursement for other board functions. Fullerton $100-a-month car allowance and $30 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting they attend. Garden Grove $30 for community redevelopment meeting (meets twice a month) and $50 for the monthly Housing Authority meeting. Huntington Beach Mayor also receives $444 a month for expenses; council members $333. Irvine Laguna Beach La Habra $25 per commission meeting. La Palma $30 per meeting of community development commission. Los Alamitos Mission Viejo (Pending) Newport Beach Orange Placentia Expenses reimbursed. San Clemente San Juan Capistrano $10 each for twice-monthly water board meetings and $30 a meeting for twice-monthly city Redevelopment Agency meeting. Santa Ana Councilmen earn $125 for each meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency, which usually meets twice a month. They are paid $50 for attending Housing Authority meetings. Seal Beach $125 a month in expenses and $30 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting. Stanton Tustin $30 a meeting for Redevelopment Agency twice a month. Villa Park Expenses reimbursed for attendance at annual League of Cities meeting. Westminster Mayor gets $200 a month for expenses. Members receive $100 a month for expenses. All sit on Redevelopment Agency and receive an additional $30 a meeting (bimonthly meetings) and $20 for expenses for each meeting. Yorba Linda $30 for Redevelopment Agency meetings. (Salaries will rise to $400 a month December, 1988)