City Council approves committee recommendations for council salary increases
The Ad Hoc Charter Advisory Committee presented its findings to El Paso City Council Tuesday after holding three public meetings. One of the things the committee was looking into was potential pay increases for city representatives and the mayor.
The committee was reactivated back in April. Its job is to work with City Council on any recommendations for city charter amendments.
City representatives currently make $29,000. The committee recommended to increase the pay to $45,300. The salary shall be set at the amount equal to the 2017 El Paso County area median household income as established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The salary change would go into effect on September 1, 2019.
After that, the salary would change based on the median household income established by the HUD.
The committee also recommended to increase the mayor’s salary to $67,950 (150% of the HUD’s median household income).
City Council voted Tuesday to accept the committee’s recommendations. Council will vote on June 26th to call for a special election to be called within the November 2018 general election. Representative Michiel Noe was the only person to vote against the recommendations.
The public would then vote on whether to increase salaries for city council members.
“Ninety-nine percent of everyone who spoke to us were in favor of increasing compensation,” committee chairman Richard Dayoub said.
City council also asked the charter advisory committee to provide recommendations for two other amendments.
One would reduce the prohibitions on outside public employment for mayor and city council members. The committee recommended that the language to prohibit outside public employment stay the same.
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The other would instruct the city of El Paso internal auditor to report directly to the mayor and council. The committee recommended that the city charter stay the same. The internal auditor would still report directly to the city manager.
