EDITORIAL
Keep a sharp eye on council pay-raise game

While some City Council members might appear to be ready to reject annual pay raises, it's also possible that behind all the protests is a move that would set the stage to win those increases.

Which is why the public should pay close attention to what actually transpires at City Hall in coming weeks.

The city Salary Commission has recommended a 21 percent raise for council members and a 5 percent raise for such top city officials as the mayor, managing director, prosecutor and corporation counsel.

The council is kicking around three responses: It can kill all the pay raises; it can kill all but pay raises for certain top city officials; or it can approve raises for all but the council members.

We recommend the last.

If the council does nothing except squabble about who should get a raise, the pay increase will automatically go into effect.

One way to pull that rabbit out of the hat is to do precisely what Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz is doing. He has introduced a resolution to kill all the raises. If some council members object on grounds that certain underpaid city officials would lose out, the resolution would die and voila, everyone, including the council members, gets a raise.

And that's fine if we believe council members deserve a 21 percent raise during this time of intensive belt-tightening. But the fact is, we don't.

Elected legislative office on the municipal and state level is not supposed to be the same as a regular 40-hour-a-week job. Yes, they work hard, but the post is designed as public service that requires sacrifices, including modest compensation. And if people are drawn to it because they're looking for a paying job, then they probably are doing it for the wrong reasons.

As of Friday, Dela Cruz had not referred any resolution pertaining to pay raises for a committee hearing for the coming week.

If the council members want to reject all or part of the raises, at least five would have to agree to bring one of the resolutions directly to the full council on June 4, the only meeting scheduled before the deadline. Or five would have to call for a special council meeting, which is unlikely.

So if the council is truly sincere about rejecting raises, it should act immediately so the matter can proceed to a full council hearing.

Inaction means those raises automatically go into effect.