The Richmond City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved giving itself an 80% pay raise and will vote on implementing it at a future meeting. The move stands to make the city’s elected officials the highest paid in Contra Costa County and the second highest-paid among similarly sized Bay Area cities.
According to a city report, city council members make $1,402.50 per month while the mayor makes $3,875 a month. They also receive $300 and $350 monthly allowances, respectively.
California city councils are allowed raises of up to a maximum of 5% per year dating back to the date of their last raise, according to California Senate Bill 329. If approved, council members would be paid $2,524.50 per month and the mayor $6,975 a month.
Mayor Eduardo Martinez defended the raise after citizens questioned it during Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’ve been hearing proposals about the council shrinking its workload by taking two months for summer vacation instead of one,” said Richmond resident Terri Hinte. “Giving yourself a hefty raise while doing less work? Read the room. How many Richmond residents have the luxuries you are claiming for yourselves?”
“I want to start off by explaining to people these jobs are actually 24/7 jobs,” Martinez said. “If you ask people who work here they will tell you that I’m here every single day and sometimes I’m here at night, like tonight. A lot of us end up staying here till past midnight. It takes time to prepare to be able to sit here till midnight, and the reason is because we do our homework and have a lot of questions to ask.”
Martinez also pushed back on Hinte’s suggestion that the council is doing less work overall because it gets a two-month summer break.
“We took a two-month vacation, but during that two-month vacation we did negotiations,” he said. “We got the city $550 million during that period. We negotiated Point Molate during that time. If you want to call the vacation a vacation, consider the council and the mayor’s jobs as working vacations because we worked during that time.”
District 1 council member Melvin Willis, who wasn’t reelected and will be leaving the council this month after eight years in office, said he was unable to give the elected duties his undivided attention because he had another job to support himself.
“If you want your council to be successful, responsive and pay attention to all the needs of the city, the council needs to be set up for success,” Willis said. “I haven’t in these eight years been able to 100% focus on this council because I’ve had to hold down another job and have my time split just so I can sustain myself while I serve a community that I love and just barely getting by with the compensation.”
Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who represents District 6, said that she supports the pay raise and thinks the increase will motivate those of different socio-economic backgrounds to run for public office.
“We are always thinking about who is going to represent us in the city of Richmond. We value diversity. We want more people of color and more single moms that have that vision that we don’t have,” Jimenez said. “But in order for us to enable these types of leaders to be here we need to make sure that it is sustainable.”
Jimenez said even the proposed pay raise is not a livable wage.
“Right now, even with this raise, the people who are able to do this job well are privileged,” she said. “That’s why I think, more than anything else, this is an equity issue here. So ask yourself, do you want retired people or the rich who don’t need to work and have all the time to do it or do you want the people who are closest to the pain and the needs of the community so they can bring all that knowledge to make sure that the policies are going to impact in a real way to those communities?”
Shame on the mayor and city council. 😒
One of the most dysfunctional cities in the bay area and they are now paid the most.
Maybe it would function better if they weren’t paid as low as $2500 a month. They should get at least twice that much.
Richmondside, Than you for the opportunity to share my support for the salary increases for the Mayor and the Richmond City Council Members. Below is the email I sent to the City Clerk’s Office to show my support:
I’m a resident of the City of Richmond and I wholeheartedly support the Ordinances to amend the monthly salaries of the Mayor and City Council Members. I was surprised to read that there’s been no increase since 2007! Since then eonomic numbers clearly demonstrate the need for an increase. In addition the increases are well deserved based upon excellent job performance by the Mayor and the Council.
In my opinion, the City Council is the “beating heart of the City.” They consider an enormous list of issues and tons of reports and contracts then make informed and reasonable decisions for City, including support for the Richmond Public Library.
The Council is doing an excellent job.
Similarly, Mayor Eduardo’s leadership toward a New Path for Richmond bolsters every aspect of our civic life. There’s a New Path for our youth, for jobs, for a Green economy, for public safety options and for our beautiful Port where I take the Ferry every chance I get. I’m greatly encouraged by the Mayor’s vision for our future.
Most of all, I appreciate the manner in which the Mayor and the Council treat us as residents – with respect and sincerity – showing they truly care about the people of Richmond. The salary increases are well deserved and about time!
$1,400 a month is peanuts! This is the reasons so many councils are filled with older white folks who are sometimes out of touch with the experiences and realities of their constituents. Raising the salaries for both council and mayor allows them to focus on the work, which is consuming and includes plenty of nights and weekends. I wholeheartedly support.
As a voter, I will vote against any elected official who gives themselves this 80% raise. 5% should be plenty, considering that I got a 1% raise last year. They do not work 24/7, as Martinez claimed. I am guessing they take time to sleep among many other things. Many of us, including me, work long hours, at more than one job. Many of us work while on vacation. 24/7 is hyperbole. Our Mayor and city counsel members may be required to have variable availability in their roles, but they are not working continuously. Higher pay won’t change the pool of applicants for city counsel. We have plenty of people running, and they are not running for the job based on the salary. There are also lucrative benefits realized during and after their role in this city government position. Is there a pension and other benefits? Having an outside job connects them to the reality the rest of us live in. I’ll ask the community, are your taxes too low? Did you get an 80% raise that will enable you to pay for the proposed raise?