Voters take away council’s pay raises

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, April 4, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

Boulder City council members will have to make due with their current salaries, as voters Tuesday approved a referendum that rejected midterm salary increases the council voted itself in June.

The vote to deny the unprecedented raises would have allowed the mayor and two councilmen to earn raises without first facing the voters.

A whopping 41 percent of registered voters cast ballots -- 2,129 voted against the raises, or 55 percent, and 1,759, or 45 percent, voted for them. The Boulder City turnout more than tripled the Clark County voter turnout of 12.4 percent.

The mayor would have earned an $8,000 annual raise, along with a monthly increase of $300 in retirement benefits. During the 1999 campaign Mayor Bob Ferraro said he planned to retire in 2003. Council members would have received a $5,000 raise.

The midterm raises would have been the first in the history of Boulder City. In four previous elections the council delayed raises until members first faced voters.

Councilman Bill Smith, who took on the rest of the board to lead the campaign against the raises, said he was elated Tuesday night.

"I think the majority of the people understood the issue," Smith said. "It wasn't whether the council deserved the pay raises, but whether we ought to vote ourselves a raise halfway through a term."

Representatives from the Boulder City Defense League, an ad hoc group that led an ad campaign against the referendum, said Tuesday it would be hard to continue paying council members meager wages and expect them to take the time to represent the city in regional issues.

Council members make $22,000 a year. The mayor earns $24,600.

"We don't want volunteer politicians. We want strong leadership," Cokie Booth, a member of the ad hoc group, said.

Ferraro said he was disappointed the majority of voters hadn't recognized that though the midterm raises were unusual, the city charter allows them. And that charter, he said, is what makes Boulder City unique.

"They thought Boulder City should be the same," Ferraro said.