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Council flops on pay raise

In Olympic diving, everybody ends up in the water; it's how they got there that counts on the score cards. By that measure, the St. Petersburg City Council did a belly flop in handling its own pay raise.

At the end of a 10-hour meeting last week, in the wee hours of the next day, council members finally got around to determining how much to pay the mayor and themselves. Not only were most city residents probably fast asleep, but one of the council members had already called it a night. On a unanimous vote, the council raised the mayor's pay by 32 percent to $150,000 a year - a reasonable outcome given the strong mayor's responsibility for a staff of 3,500 employees.

Then they gave themselves an even bigger raise of nearly 40 percent, to $38,000 a year. The vote was 4-3 this time. While the mayor's new salary matched a council committee's recommendation based on a compensation review, the council exceeded the suggested amount for themselves by $1,000. One member, Rene Flowers, was ready to go even higher - to $44,000.

Admittedly it is difficult to say with certainty exactly what City Council service is worth. It is supposed to be a part-time, policymaking position with details of running the city left to the mayor and staff. Maybe this council was figuring its pay by the hour. With eight loquacious members, the meetings commonly run long.

There was no reason to rush the pay raise through under the cover of darkness. The public apparently approves of the job this council is doing, considering six of the seven incumbents seeking another term in the past two elections succeeded. And there was little public reaction to the pay recommendations.

A better approach would have been for the council to put the pay discussion off to another day, when minds were fresh and the public could be present. If there was a reason to exceed its own committee's recommended salary, an explanation should have been given. As it played out, the process looked more like a session of The Price is Right .

Now that the council has a 40-percent raise, St. Petersburg residents should expect at least a 40-percent improvement in the members' responsiveness to the public.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:50:22]