City council to pay itself salaries

The Sonoma City Council has approved a compensation package that will provide council members with a salary for the first time in city history.
In a 4-1 vote at its Oct. 17 meeting, the council directed city staff to prepare an ordinance that will give members a salary of $300 per month. Council members would also be paid $30 for each meeting of the Community Development Agency, which is typically held at the same session as a city council meeting. These dollar amounts are authorized under state law. Mayor Stanley Cohen cast the lone no vote.
In another 4-1 vote – also with Cohen dissenting – council members agreed to reimburse themselves up to $200 per month for council-related expenses. The annual cost to the city would be up to $40,000: $18,000 for salaries and up to $12,000 for expense reimbursements. The pay for redevelopment meetings, coming from that agency’s budget, would likely cost another $3,600.
Cohen said he would agree to reimbursements only for child-care but said that other expenses for such things as phone calls were unnecessary. Council members are already eligible for city-paid health and dental insurance.
Cohen’s primary objection to salaries was his belief that it is poor public policy to be providing salaries for council members at a time when budget deficits loom large over the future of the city.
However, council member Joanne Sanders said salaries were necessary to open the door to those – particularly minorities and women – who cannot afford to run for public office without at least some minimal financial compensation. Child care costs alone, she said, are an intractable barrier to public service for many single mothers.
A staff report notes that most California cities pay their council members, and council member Ken Brown said that Sonoma remains the only city in the county not to provide salaries for its council members.
The salaries, which must be approved in a final vote after an ordinance is prepared by staff, will go into effect in December 2008. The reimbursement policy will go into effect in December of this year.