WITH the upcoming March 3 primary election, contenders for Los Angeles City Council are promising to take pay cuts if they are elected.
City Council members earn more than $184,000 per year for their work, an amount that exceeds the $174,000 annual salary of most US Congress members. They also receive more than what councilmembers in America’s five largest cities earn: In Phoenix, Ariz. and Houston, Texas, members receive $61,600 and 62,580 annually, respectively; in New York City, members receive a base salary of $112,500, and top leaders can earn up to an additional $20,000.
In the Council District 2 race, Eric Preven, who is challenging incumbent Paul Krekorian, said he would slash his salary if elected; entrepreneur Tomas O’Grady, who is running against 13 others for the District 4 seat, promised he would cut his salary in half; District 4 contender Carolyn Ramsay, who formerly served as Councilmember Tom LaBonge’s chief of staff, also said she would take a pay cut, but suggested that more pressing financial issues face City Hall, such as pension expenses.
“We absolutely need to look at salaries, but do I think this is the answer to our budget problem?” Ramsay said, according to the Daily News. “Our problems are much bigger than council salaries.”
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina initially pledged to reduce her salary by half and said she anticipates receiving a pension between $86,000 to $90,000 from the county.
However, Greg Rademacher, chief executive officer of Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, told the Daily News that Molina’s annual pension amounts to $124,632.
In a follow-up interview with the Daily News, Molina said she did not calculate her pension correctly and would take a $60,000 salary if elected. She said she wanted to ensure her salary cut offset her entire county retirement income, according to Los Angeles Times.
Cindy Montanez, who is competing in the District 6 race against incumbent Nury Martinez, said she is open to a pay cut and criticized city-issued cars that councilmembers drive, according to the Daily News.
“We don’t need all that,” Montanez told the newspaper. “We can be like everyone else.”
Political analysts say the pledge to take pay cuts is primarily symbolic, given the city’s $5.1-billion general operating budget, the Times reported.
“It strikes me as primarily a campaign tactic,” Tom Hogen-Esch, a professor of political science at Cal State Northridge, told the Times. “It puts the other candidate on the defensive, to either say why they’d keep their salary or follow suit.”
Such a promise can also shine a favorable spotlight on candidates and encourage voters to mark their ballots for those who have declared they would take lesser pay.
“After all, most voters don’t really know that much about the candidate, if that’s the one thing that you know about the candidate, that might tip you in the direction of going to the polls and voting for that person,” Claremont College Professor Jack Pitney said, according to CBS.
Pitney told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO the strategy is one Congressmembers used in the 1970s, when they swore not to take pay increases. However, they later on changed the law and made pay hikes automatic.
“Therefore members don’t have to go on record voting for a pay raise, and they still get it,” he said. “They have their cake and eat it too.”
While many candidates have vowed to take pay cuts, District 14 incumbent Councilmember José Huizar has no intention of giving up part of his earnings, said Parke Skelton, his campaign consultant.
“He’s got kids to support. He’s got a family,” he told the Times. “I don’t think he’s in a position where he could take half the salary.”
(With reports from CBS, Los Angeles Daily News and Los Angeles Times)
(www.asianjournal.news)
(LA Midweek February 11-13, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
