Escondido City Council votes to move forward with raises

The Escondido City Council voted unanimously Dec. 17 to move forward with a plan to give council members a 5% raise for each of the next two years.

The move is expected to return to the council for final approval Jan. 7.

Council members acknowledged that decisions to give themselves raises can be challenging politically.

“This item is not fun,” Mayor Dane White said. “It almost feels kind of slimy when you’re doing this.”

At the same time, they said that they think the raises are an important way that they can ensure that working-class people run for the council and not only those who are retired or independently wealthy.

“We all know how much things have gone up in cost,” Councilmember Christian Garcia said.

Ten percent over two years is the maximum amount a city council is allowed to increase its compensation, according to state law.

Much of the discussion before the vote was about the discrepancy in pay between the mayor and the other council members. Technically, all five of them are considered full-time employees, though the mayor has more duties than other council members.

The way the pay structure is set up in Escondido, each council member, including the mayor, gets a salary and benefits. The mayor also gets additional pay above the council rate. Currently, that comes out to $2,245 a month for the council members and $6,280 each month for the mayor.

The council voted to give the whole council the 10% ra...