Some council members can receive full benefits

Dan Kulin

Thursday, March 13, 2003 | 10:03 a.m.

A lawsuit seeking to strip Boulder City elected officials of $950-a-month allowances for health insurance and car costs ended Wednesday with mixed results for the city and residents who filed the suit.

District Judge Stewart Bell ruled the mayor and two councilmen are entitled to $785 a month in health and auto allowances, and the other two council members are entitled to all $950 a month in allowances.

Bell said according to state law and the Boulder City Charter, elected officials' financial compensation cannot be changed mid-term. This decision means that $165 worth of increases to auto and health allowances should not have been offered to Councilman Bryan Nix or Mayor Bob Ferraro. The increases, $40 a month for health insurance and $125 a month for car costs, were both approved after Nix and Ferraro started their current terms.

Also, because Councilman Doug Scheppmann was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Joe Hardy, who was elected to the Assembly, Scheppmann is entitled to the $785 a month in allowances that Hardy would have received, Bell said.

Before Wednesday, Scheppmann had been told that because he was appointed to the council he was not entitled to any of the allowances.

Bell said his ruling also means that council members Andrea Anderson and Mike Pacini are entitled to receive all $950 of the monthly allowances because that was the amount of the allowances when they started their current terms in 2001. The breakdown of the allowance is $500 for health costs, $450 for car costs.

An amendment to the charter approved by the voters in September stripped both allowances from all the elected officials. But Bell said that change doesn't go into effect until the current terms of the sitting mayor and council end, not immediately as the suit argued.

"It was a mixed result," Boulder City Attorney Dave Olsen said.

Former Councilman Bill Smith, one of the residents who filed the suit in December, said he doesn't consider the ruling a win or a loss. Smith, who is running for mayor against Ferraro and Pacini, said the mayor and council should have followed Anderson's lead following the passage of the initiative. Anderson stopped accepting the allowances soon after the amendment was approved.

Other elected officials have also been taking less than the $950 a month since then.

Nix and Ferraro were already not accepting the extra $125 a month for car costs, Olsen said.

Scheppmann wasn't receiving any of the allowances because he was told he wasn't eligible. Olsen said Scheppmann will not be offered the allowances retroactively.

Pacini had been taking the total $950 a month for both allowances, Olsen said.

While the allowances will be stopped for any elected officials' future terms, the council is expected to vote on March 25 on an ordinance that would increase the base salaries for the mayor and council members.

The proposed raises would mean about $6,000 a year more for each City Council member and a $7,500 annual boost for the mayor.