Oakland City Council to vote on $75,000 mayoral pay raise, amid city's historic deficit
OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland's mayor may receive a pay raise as much as $75,000 a year, even as the city faces a historic deficit.
The city's human resources department recommended the substantial pay increase for Mayor Sheng Thao, according to Tuesday's City Council meeting agenda and first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Staff officials observed in their memorandum that Thao's current salary is lower than average pay for chief executive officers in other California cities of comparable population.
They also noted that one of the mayor's subordinate special assistants makes nearly $22,000 more annually than Thao herself.
Thao's annual salary is $202,999 according to the city, while the suggested mayoral salary range listed in the City Charter starts at $216,202.
But Oakland's HR team thought she should make the higher end of the range, suggesting Thao should earn $277,974 to run the city of more than 400,000 people.
This would be an approximate 37% pay raise for the mayor, who took office in January this year.
Oakland's Finance and Management Committee approved the move on Tuesday in a 3-1 vote, with District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran the lone "no" vote.
"In difficult financial times, we need to be prudent on where we’re spending our money," she told KTVU Tuesday. "That means making sure we’re supporting the city staff in Oakland to be able to do their jobs and deliver services from fixing potholes, to roads, to crime prevention. And the reality is in the city of Oakland we have a substantial portion of our staff members making less than the minimum wage."
Ramachandran said she isn't against giving the mayor a bump in pay but considers $75,000 to be drastic, especially considering a $360 million budget deficit.
But other finance committee members, including Nikki Fortunato Bas, said city salaries need to keep up with the expensive cost of living.
"It's been 10 years since the salary of this office has been increase," she said.
The pay raise "advances the Citywide Priority of responsive, trustworthy government," wrote Ian Appleyard, the city's HR Management Director who submitted the salary ordinance amendment.
He also wrote that this adoption would "maintain a fair and equitable distribution of salaries."
But Ramachandran disagreed.
"I don't believe it's a wise decision for good governance," she said. "Let's be making decisions that serve the best interest of our constituents. Let's provide basic services."
Thao is the fourth highest paid mayor in California, according to a new data report.
If Thao receives the pay raise, she would still be paid approximately $80,000 less than San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
The same data report declared Breed as the highest paid California mayor, who earned $357,084 last year.
The full city council will consider the salary increase at its meeting on July 18.
KTVU's Brooks Jarosz contributed to this report.
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