SLO Council planning another pay raise

April 30, 2018

The San Luis Obispo City Council will consider granting itself a 10 percent pay raise at its meeting on Tuesday. [Cal Coast Times]

In line with a recommendation from a city council compensation committee, the base salary for San Luis Obispo’s mayor would rise to nearly $20,000 a year. The mayor and council member positions are part-time jobs, though some of the officeholders often bemoan the amount of time they choose to spend on city related matters.

If the council approves the committee’s recommendation, the mayor’s base pay would rise from $1,500 to $1,650 a month and council member salaries would increase from $1,200 to $1,320. Annually, the mayor will make $19,800 in base pay, and council members will receive $15,840, if the salary increases are approved. In all, the raises would cost the city an additional $7,560 a year.

Furthermore, the compensation committee recommended the council increase the stipends that members of the planning commission and architectural review commission receive. The proposal calls for increasing the stipends from $60 to $70 a meeting.

Raising the commissioners’ stipends would have a total cost to the city of up to $3,920 a year.

The pay for both council members and planning and architectural review commissioners has previously increased in recent years. Following a 2014 compensation committee recommendation, the mayor’s base pay rose from $1,200 to $1,500 a month and council members’ salaries increased from $1,000 to $1,200 a month.

Meanwhile, commissioner pay has nearly tripled over the past two decades. In 2000, the compensation for planning and architectural review commissioners was just $25 per meeting.

San Luis Obispo council members can additionally collect benefits worth several thousand dollars or more. In 2013, prior to the latest council pay raise, then-councilman John Ashbaugh received $29,769 in total compensation, more than half of which came in the form of benefits.