El Paso City Council kills push to increase City Rep. salaries

A week after approving a controversial and unprecedented pay raise for City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, city representatives voted to kill an effort to give themselves pay raises.

City representatives voted on Tuesday to remove an item from November’s charter election that asked voters to approve or deny a pay raise for city council members.

The motion to delete the item from the ballot was proposed by City Rep. Michiel Noe and passed seven to one, with City Rep. Peter Svarzbein abstaining.

City Rep Lily Limon, who opposed Gonzalez’s raise, implied Tuesday’s move was aimed at quieting the criticism for those who voted for the city manager’s hefty raise. “I think the idea of removing the salaries after being so vocal in support of it is also a reaction to the sting that came through from the citizens. Not one personal said you did the right thing.”

An ad hoc charter committee had recommended voters consider giving city representatives raises in order to increase the pool of people willing to run for office.

Currently, the annual salary for a city representative is $29,000 and $45,000 for the mayor. Under the committee’s proposal, voters would have been asked to raise the salary for a city representatives to $39,000, and the mayor’s salary to $55,000.

Supporters of the measure had said the low salary was not a realistic living wage for people interested in public service, especially those with a family. They pointed out most city representatives were either independently financially comfortable, working another job or retired.

A higher salary would ensure constituents had more full time representation, according to some supporters. The City Council last month had approved putting the pay raise proposal on the November ballot but on Tuesday City Rep. Michiel Noe proposed deleting it from the ballot.

When asked if backlash from Gonzalez’s raise influenced the change of heart, Noe said yes. “Certainly I’m not going to lie to you about that. There was enough concern over raising one person’s salary to where I just personally felt it just wasn’t worth it. I backed off of that. There’s $100,000 (in savings) right there. We’ll just completely take it off the table. And unfortunately so the people coming in to the next city council election will still be limited to people who can do this job without being paid very much.”

The move comes a week after the City Council suddenly increased Gonzalez’s annual pay from about $238,000 to $300,000, a 25% increase. Only city representatives Limon and Carl Robinson voted against increasing Gonzalez’s raise.

The council has been heavily criticized for the hefty pay increase of the City Manager, saying the move was too sudden and the hike too steep.

On Tuesday, City Rep. Claudia Ordaz proposed moving the election to next year but that failed, with the mayor breaking a tie. “I’ve heard some complaints from the community that the process was moved quite quickly without enough time for the community to provide input,” said Ordaz.

Svarzbein agreed with Ordaz. “It feels like we are rushing and being reactionary on some of the decisions on what to include and not include,” he said.

But other city representatives strongly disagreed. Emma Acosta said she did not want to risk the city charter issues that aim to create efficiencies and streamline city government “taking a backseat to a presidential election next year.”

“To say that we can’t expect citizens to understand this in five months is insulting to them,” said Noe.

Voting to keep the election this November were City Representatives Emma Acosta, Cortney Niland, Larry Romero and Michiel Noe plus Mayor Oscar Leeser. Fighting to move the election to November 2016 were Claudia Ordaz, Peter Svarzbein, Lily Limon and Carl Robinson.