If anybody's getting rich in public service, San Diego's mayor and council members hardly seem to fit that profile.
Next year, city voters may get the chance to set -- and raise -- their salaries.
The mayor's job here pays $100,000 -- less than half of what it does in Los Angeles, and less than in seven smaller California cities including Chula Vista.
A hundred grand for a chief executive who runs a $3 billion operation is pretty much unheard of.
"This is the 'C Suite' of San Diego politics,” said political strategist Laura Fink. “They're making decisions that affect a lot of San Diegans, and we need to make sure that they are paid appropriately. Now they're not going to get rich either -- but we need to make sure the salaries are commensurate with the experience of the folks that we want to attract."
And in the view of the 2014-15 San Diego County grand jury, that’s not happening
"If this continues as it's going, and not really working as it's intended,” said grand jury foreman J. Robert O’Connor, “you're going to have people running for office that are independently wealthy or have no experience whatsoever.”
Attorney Robert Ottilie, chairman of the city’s independent Salary Setting Commission, added: "Not to say that somebody with a lot of money or little experience wouldn't necessarily be a good council member, but our job is to create the largest pool of potential candidates so that the voters can decide who's best. But right now we've cut out about 95 percent of the pool. That's not good."
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O’Connor and Ottilie fear there’s too little incentive for people who could command much higher wages to run for office — or stay in it.
San Diego council members get $75,000 a year.
Tony Young more than doubled his salary when he left his council presidency for the Red Cross two years ago.
The salary setting panel — appointed by the city’s Civil Service Commission -- has spent 12 years recommending raises, only to have them rejected by council members who see approving them as political suicide.
The commission has suggested linking elected officials' salaries to a percentage of what judges or lawmakers get, or the cost of living index.
The grand jury has just weighed in this month with its first report, urging a charter review aimed at going to the voters with a citywide ballot measure in 2016.
A big question is whether the electorate will endorse the idea of higher compensation, as well as taking the final say away from the council.
"I think it's all in how you package it, how you put it to voters and how do you place it?” Fink said during Friday’s recording session for Sunday’s edition of NBC 7’s “Politically Speaking” program. “Are we putting it on the June ballot? More likely, the November ballot. How do we package and sell it voters as one of the pieces of reform that we need to move forward in this larger charter review?"
Said Mark Leslie, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association: "We'll be removing something that continues to be a sword that each other can be stabbed by, depending on who's running for what office. Or what the public wants to say about someone running for office. I think it needs to be removed and that this compensation needs to be set aside and no longer be political."
The city has until early May to respond to the grand jury's report and explain any disagreements or refusals to take recommended actions.
