Editorial: Pay raise produces big stink

Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001 | 11:33 a.m.

Boulder City has long been viewed as a quaint town with old-fashioned values. The city has had a local government that is responsive to its residents, and even has had a city council that hasn't been rocked by scandal lately -- something of an anomaly in Southern Nevada. But a proposal by the Boulder City Council to raise the salaries of its members is so shameless that it would make many big-city political machines blush.

In June council members are scheduled to receive a $5,000 annual raise in their salaries and the mayor would net an $8,000 hike -- all to go into effect before they would have to first face the voters. Federal, state and local governments traditionally have prevented elected officials from dipping into their treasuries to boost their salaries unless, of course, they are willing to first stand for re-election. Otherwise, there is the temptation to line their pockets, knowing full well there is nothing the voters could do to stop it.

Councilman Bill Smith, who opposed the pay increase, is proposing two ballot questions. The April ballot question would block the pay raise from going into effect and the June measure would change the City Charter, reducing the overall compensation provided to the City Council. In response, the City Council put forward a competing initiative that would effectively keep the pay raise. But the City Council's plan was dealt a setback by the city's Charter Commission, which said the mayor and the council members shouldn't receive a pay hike until after they stood for re-election.

Now that its own initiative essentially has been gutted, the majority of the City Council said last week that it wants voters to reject all the initiatives. Why? Well, this group believes that there shouldn't be a change to the City Charter, which it says is analogous to changing the U.S. Constitution. What hypocrisy. This is the same City Council that reversed long-standing principle and sought to trash Boulder City's own precedent on pay raises. As the Sun's Jeffrey Libby reported last week, the previous four times when the Boulder City Council voted to increase its compensation, they only received the boost after standing for re-election.

What's really behind the City Council's push for a rejection of all three ballot questions is this: If Smith's initiatives are defeated, then they get to keep their pay raise with no strings attached. Voters, though, fortunately will have the last word on the inane, shallow reasoning put forward by the City Council defending the pay raises.