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June 15, 2018 • Local News

El Paso Inc.: Should El Paso city reps, mayor get a 50-percent raise? Voters will decide

El Paso City Council unanimously approved a proposal Tuesday to let voters decide in the November elections on raises for the mayor and city representatives.

If approved by voters, the raises would take effect in 2019 and would be the first pay increases for the council in a decade.

The measure, which was recommended by the city’s Ad Hoc City Charter Advisory Committee, would also provide automatic adjustments of City Council salaries annually.

The proposed charter amendment would raise the mayor’s salary by 51 percent from $45,000 to $67,950.

City representatives’ salaries would jump 56 percent from $29,000 to $45,300.

The charter committee based its salary recommendations for city representatives on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2017 median income for a family of seven – $45,300.

The $67,950 proposed salary for the mayor was set at 150 percent of the HUD median.

“From then on, the salaries would automatically be adjusted annually, based on HUD, rather than waiting years for the next charter election,” said the committee’s chairman, Richard Dayoub, the former president and CEO of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce.

He said those who spoke up at the committee’s four public meetings generally agreed “City Council is currently not compensated adequately and should be paid commensurate with a full-time job.”

In the past, City Council salaries have gone unchanged for years because raises can only be decided by election, and council members were reluctant to put their standing with the voters to the test.

The last salary increases for the mayor and council took effect in June 2009, said city human resources director Hellen Ball Thomas.

The committee recommended against putting two other charter measures to voters.

One would have allowed City Council members to work for another government agency while serving on the council.

In Texas, serving as an elected official for one government while being paid by another is generally prohibited. But it’s allowed in certain situations – with voter approval.

In considering what to do, committee members looked at the situation of District 3 city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez, a single mother of two, who held a well-paid, executive position with Workforce Solutions Borderplex before being elected to the council and then having to resign.

Dayoub said the committee decided it would not have made sense to propose a significant pay raise for council members while also proposing to let them be paid for a second government job.

The restriction does not apply to private income, but many council members have struggled over the years to run a business or practice law while serving on City Council.

If voters turn down the proposed pay raises, Dayoub said, “You can only do so much.”

The other charter provision the committee elected to leave as is deals with the city’s internal auditor.

Right now, the auditor can be hired and fired by the city manager with City Council approval.

And the auditor reports the results of special and regularly scheduled audits of city operations to a committee made up of the city manager, city attorney and chief financial officer plus four city representatives.

Once they receive and review the auditor’s findings, they’re posted on the city’s website.

Dayoub said the committee saw no reason to change those procedures.

The other Ad Hoc Charter Advisory Committee members were Mark Benitez, Jim Graham, Deborah Hamlyn, James Montoya, Steve Ortega, Kevin Quinn, Richard Teschner and Tracy Yellen.

http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/should-el-paso-city-reps-mayor-get-a--percent/article_69b166fe-6e90-11e8-b81b-6fdce78e46c3.html