Editorial: Pay raise now up to the voters

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

On Wednesday the Las Vegas City Council took up the city manager's plan to increase the pay for council members and the mayor, a plan that also for the first time would give them a generous car allowance. Council members now receive $40,664 annually, and under the proposal they would receive an extra $8,000 in pay and $7,200 for a yearly car allowance. The mayor receives $53,422 a year and he would receive an extra $9,700 in pay and a $10,800 car allowance. The City Council, however, decided against voting for this substantial increase. Wisely, the City Council instead directed city staff to explore placing the plan before voters as a referendum in the upcoming municipal elections.

Great care should be given to how the ballot question is written and what restrictions should be placed on the compensation if the measure passes. For starters, there should be two ballot questions, so that residents vote separately on the pay raise and the car allowance. A pay raise and a car allowance are very different types of compensation and should be dealt with individually. Besides, one shouldn't die or survive based on the other.

Regarding the pay raise, the city should make sure that there is no way that they can receive pay hikes tied to annual cost-of-living increases until they run again. In addition, pay hikes shouldn't be tied to future salary increases for county commissioners. City officials should be required to justify any salary hike -- at election time -- before they receive it. With respect to the car allowance, these elected officials should be required to fill out the same mileage reimbursement sheets as any other government employee. If they're not using their private car for official business, then they shouldn't be reimbursed for money that's never been spent.

Periodically we should examine the salaries of elected officials to see whether they're outdated. It is proper that all voters of Las Vegas now will be able to express themselves on whether these proposed compensation increases are warranted.