SLO mayor and council members will get higher pay 

SLO’s mayor and City Council members are the latest local officials to vote themselves pay hikes. With a 3-2 vote on June 3, the council members voted to raise their pay 6 percent per year, bringing the mayor’s monthly salary to $1,272 and council members’ monthly pay to $1,060. Members Christine Mulholland and Allen Settle voted against the raise.

The salaries are considered stipends intended to compensate the officials for the time they spend, but aren’t supposed to rise to the level of “sustaining income.”

Council Member Paul Brown said the change will move toward making it more feasible for people who aren’t self-employed, independently wealthy, or retired to serve on the board. He said that the time commitment can reach 40 hours per week at times.

The hike comes after one in 2007 and follows a compensation survey of the salaries of elected city officials in nine other cities that found SLO below average. The salaries ranged from $669 per month for both the mayor and council members in Davis to $3,615 per month for the mayor of Santa Barbara, where council members receive $2,892 per month.

Late last year, SLO County supervisors voted to raise their own pay from $79,000 to $84,000 per year. Both the city and county also recently voted in sizeable pay increases for top officials.