The San Luis Obispo City Council authorized the formation of a constituent-led compensation committee to review raises paid to council members, the Planning Commission, and the Architectural Review Commission (ARC).
“It was a very difficult committee to be on,” Councilmember Jan Marx, who served on the 2004 compensation committee, said at the May 20 City Council meeting. “We ended basically just saying keep it the way it is more or less.”
According to the city charter, compensation for the mayor and the City Council should be reviewed biennially in even-numbered years. The recommended adjustments would become effective the following January of the next two-year period.
SLO’s last compensation committee assembled in 2020. It recommended increasing the mayor’s and councilmembers’ monthly stipends to $2,508 (from $1,725) and $1,990 (from $1,224), respectively. The committee also recommended deferring compensations for the Planning Commission and ARC.
A compensation committee wasn’t formed in 2022. Instead, the city adopted a resolution setting a biennial consumer price index (CPI) increase to the three bodies. The City Council approved a CPI increase of 8.3 percent to monthly compensations in 2024. Currently, the mayor’s monthly stipend is $2,923 and councilmembers receive $2,319.
City staff said that the professional development allowances for council members aren’t enough, especially with the cost of training programs and traveling to conferences rising exponentially. On average, attending an in-state conference costs roughly $1,800, accounting for items like travel and lodging. That amount increases for out-of-state conferences.
Deputy City Manager Greg Hermann suggested applying a CPI “catch-up” on professional development allowances since 2012.
“The total increase was about 35 percent during those intervening years,” he said. “If the council wanted to apply the CPI increase on a go-forward basis to professional development similar to what it does for salaries, we’d need to amend the policies and procedures because right now it’s just specific to salaries.”
If the City Council had approved applying the 35 percent catch-up to its professional development allowances, the mayor’s allocation would have risen from $3,600 to $4,830. Councilmembers’ professional development allowance would have increased from $2,700 to $3,650.
However, the City Council unanimously voted to let the public weigh in through a constituent-led compensation committee. The city must appoint the seven-member committee consisting of at least one previously elected official and a member of the personnel board by January 2026. The committee must then submit its compensation recommendation to the City Council in the form of a resolution by May 2026. If the City Council approves the resolution, it’ll become effective January 2027.
“I’ve seen how much work our City Council members put into their jobs,” 2020 compensation committee member Kim Bisheff told New Times. “I think that many people don’t know that it’s barely compensated in terms of the amount of work they do. They’re definitely being paid far less than minimum wage to do that work.”
Bisheff has served on the committee twice. During her 2020 service, former City Councilmember Dan Rivoire and city staff guided the committee. They studied data and the actions of other comparable communities in California and analyzed the city budget before drawing up recommendations.
“If we want to have a city council that doesn’t just represent independently wealthy constituents, then then we need to make running for office more affordable for a wider range of community members,” Bisheff said. “Engaging the public in that process helps ensure that there’s transparency, that the conversations are happening in language that we know people will understand, not just city jargon.”
The proposed committee will not only consider the compensation packages for the Planning Commission and ARC but will also examine salaries for other advisory bodies. Councilmember Mike Boswell acknowledged that those other committees are doing more work now than they were in the past.
Assistant City Manager Hermann added that the Planning Commissioners make $86 per meeting, with salaries that couldn’t exceed $347 per month.
“I really believe strongly that part of being a robust democracy is having public discussion around these types of things,” Councilmember Emily Francis said. “I also believe that there is some pretty big equity issues embedded in the compensation of our advisory bodies.” Δ
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 8, 2025.