Woodbury, Porter back controversial pay raises

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, March 23, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and state Sen. Jon Porter have come out in favor of salary hikes that Boulder City voters will get a chance to approve or reject in the April 3 primary municipal election.

Both high-ranking politicians have ties to Boulder City. They say the raises the City Council voted itself last July should stand as approved, even if that means the mayor and two councilmen would benefit from raises without first having to stand for re-election.

Woodbury, who lives in Boulder City and was first elected in 1981, was recently honored as the longest-serving Clark County commissioner of all time. He said the council has worked hard and deserves the raises.

Porter, R-Henderson, who is a former Boulder City mayor and councilman, said he is being loyal to the local charter and to an old friend, Mayor Robert Ferraro.

Both politicians prepared statements of support for an ad-hoc citizen's group, the Boulder City Defense League. The statements appeared Thursday as part of a paid ad in the Boulder City News.

But Boulder City Councilman Bill Smith, who led the citizen-driven referendum to repeal the raises, said hard work and old friendships avoid the central issue of the salary hikes.

"We're not against the pay raises and we never have been. But it's totally unethical of the council to give itself a raise until members stand for re-election," Smith said. "Bruce Woodbury is misleading the voters when he says the council deserves a pay raise because that's not the issue at all."

If the raises are upheld, Ferraro and Councilmen Bryan Nix and Joe Hardy would benefit from raises in mid-term. Such an event would be unprecedented locally. Since 1970 when council members first earned salaries, four pay hikes have been staggered to allow for elections.

At the state level, same-term raises are illegal.

The raises -- $5,000 annually for councilmen and $8,000 for the mayor -- are scheduled to begin following the June general election. Council members currently earn $22,100 annually. The mayor earns $24,600.

Since 1991, the last time a significant raise was approved, the council has received only cost-of-living increases.

"Basically I think the amount in question is so small compared to what the Boulder City Council ought to be paid," Woodbury said.

But Smith said the $300 increase in monthly retirement payments Ferraro stands to earn from the raises is no small matter.

A state ethics panel ruled in December that Ferraro broke ethics laws by not disclosing the additional benefit of the raise when the City Council discussed the raises last summer. No fine was imposed.

But many citizens actually rallied behind Ferraro as a result of the ethics complaint filed by Smith.

Linda Faiss, now a member of the ad-hoc citizens group, was one of them.

"I wasn't concerned about this at all until Councilman Bill Smith took the issue outside to the state ethics board. It was an embarassment to the city," Faiss said. "It was a problem we could have solved in our own community."

Resident Kathryn Hartman disagreed. "He (Ferraro) is taking the city for a ride," she said.

Ferraro acknowledged openly during the 1999 campaign that he planned to retire after one term if elected, Hartman said. He needs the mid-term raise to avoid running for another four-year term, she said.

Ferraro has served the city for more than 24 years as councilman and mayor.

Ted Jelen, a UNLV political science professor, doesn't have a problem with the same-term raises. "My sense is that politicians are generally underappreciated and underpaid," Jelen said. "Unfortunately, we often get what we pay for."

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