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Politics

Straw poll planned on council pay hike

The New Port Richey City Council will ask voters in a nonbinding referendum whether council members should get their first pay raises since 1990.

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published September 21, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - Voters have the chance in April to answer a $15,000 question: Should the five City Council members each get a $3,000 raise?

The increases would bring the mayor's annual salary up to $7,200 and council members' to $6,600. City Council members haven't had raises since 1990.

The referendum question will function only as an opinion poll, however. Under the city charter, only City Council members have the authority to increase their salaries.

But some members of the council, which voted 4-1 Tuesday night to put the question to voters, said they would base their decision on the results of the public vote.

"I hope people let us know how they feel about this," said council member Ginny Miller.

Council member Marilynn deChant cast the dissenting vote. She said the general public may not know how much time and work goes into being a City Council member.

"In this position as the executives of the city, we would have the ability and right to give ourselves an appropriate increase," deChant said.

In other council business Tuesday night:

- Council members voted to limit residents' landscape irrigation to one day per week. Property owners currently are allowed two days. Officials described the water conservation measure as a way to get in line with what other member cities of Tampa Bay Water are doing. Residents with addresses ending in an even number or the letters A through M can water on Tuesday. Everyone else on Sunday.

- Council members gave final approval to a program that would remove an obstacle to new residential construction, particularly the redevelopment of motels into permanent housing, along the U.S. 19 corridor.

Currently, state law requires cities to limit new residential development in the so-called "coastal high hazard area," which are evacuation zones for Category 1 hurricanes. U.S. 19 is in such an area.

But the program approved Tuesday night will give some property owners within that zone the rights to build new residential units on parcels where they currently cannot.

Those property owners could buy the rights to build residential units from the city, which currently holds those development rights on 19 acres within the coastal high hazard area.

The city property would be turned into something like a park or storm retention area. And the houses that could have gone on that public property would now be built on private land.

The effect? The city would not be increasing allowable residential density within the evacuation zone, only changing where the units could go.

City staff is still working out details of the program, such as how much residential development rights are worth and how the city would go about selling them.

Jodie Tillman covers the city of New Port Richey. She can be reached at 727 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 20, 2006, 23:08:32]