Santa Monica : Council Pay Raise on Ballot

Voters will have a chance to decide in November whether to increase the pay of City Council members and provide them with medical benefits. They also will vote on a measure that would restrict members to three consecutive four-year terms in office.

The council decided Tuesday night to ask the city attorney’s office to draft the measures, which will be reviewed by the council before being placed on the ballot.

Under a recommendation of the council-appointed Charter Review Commission, council members would see their salaries jump from $50 a month to about $600, although the exact figure has yet to be determined.

Former Mayor Christine Reed told the council that any increase should be based on the adoption of ethical reforms. Specifically, she said council members should be banned for one year after leaving office from accepting top administrative posts in the city.

Reed denied that she was singling out outgoing City Councilman Dennis Zane, who has expressed an interest in the $70,000-a-year directorship of Bayside District Corp., the nonprofit, city-supported agency in charge of the Third Street Promenade.

“There could be four unemployed City Council members in November,” Reed said. “So actually I was thinking of all of them.” Reed was defeated in 1990 in her bid for reelection but last month won the Republican nomination for an Assembly seat in a district that includes Santa Monica.

The council agreed to consider ethical reforms at a later date.