Some of Redondo Beach’s elected officials will get paid more in the next few years.
The City Council during its Tuesday, Oct. 4, meeting approved a salary increase for the mayor, city councilmember and city clerk roles, some starting next year and others taking effect in 2025. Future mayors and councilmembers will make nearly double what the seat holders currently take home each month from the public service job.
The mayor and councilmembers’ salaries will go from $927 to $1,669 per month, a $741 increase, while the city clerk’s pay will jump from $10,558 to $10,874 per month. The city treasurer’s pay will stay the same, however, at $2,083 per month.
Higher paychecks will come into play once the 2023 terms begin for Districts 3 and 5, and in 2025 for Districts 1, 2 and 4. Councilman Christian Horvath (District 3) and Councilwoman Laura Emdee’s (District 5) terms end in 2023; Mayor Bill Brand, Councilmen Nils Nehrenheim (District 1), Zein Obagi (District 4) and Todd Lowenstein’s (District 2) terms end in 2025.
The mayor and city council salaries were last changed in 2013, according to the city’s municipal code. The city clerk’s salary was last changed in 2015, per the code, receiving 2% increases each year thereafter through 2018.
The salary increases were set to be approved on Tuesday’s consent calendar, a list of typically non-controversial items that councils approve in a single sweeping vote, but Horvath pulled the issue for a separate discussion in disagreement.
Council members ultimately approved the pay raise 3-2, with Horvath and Emdee dissenting.
“I think the council went too far with the salaries,” Horvath said.
Emdee also wasn’t in favor of the hike, noting that the Redondo Beach dais is one of the highest paid in the area compared to similar cities.
Obagi accused those opposed to the increase of wanting to reserve the council positions for the privileged few.
“We want to open it up to everybody,” Obagi said. “If this is going to give you enough money that you can afford to take off some time from your day job to do this, that’s the message we’re sending.”
“This job demands a lot, will demand more and we should do everything we can to attract the best people,” he added.
Loewenstein, for his part, said he doesn’t think they’re asking for much.
“No one up here will benefit from this,” Loewenstein said, “This is not self serving, this is to benefit future councils and constituents.”
He noted that he and his colleagues spend around 30 hours per week doing council work, away from their children and spouses; although they asked to volunteer and serve, a higher incentive wouldn’t hurt for future elected officials.
District 3 resident Candace Nafissi, who ran for council in 2019, spoke in agreement of the increase at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Nobody does this job for the money, but it does change the game to get paid an adequate amount for what you’re doing,” Nafissi said Tuesday. “This should not be a job for the privileged, it should be for those who can afford to do it and want to do it wholeheartedly.”
But Horvath disagrees that a bigger offer will be the tipping point for residents who decide to run for office.
“If someone wants to run, they will regardless because they want to serve, that’s it,” Horvath said.
Redondo’s elected officials’ pay jump is nothing compared to what could come to Hawthorne, however. That city’s voters, meanwhile, will decide during the Nov. 8 election through Measure I whether to change their town from a general law city to a charter city, like Redondo is, which would come with a councilmember salary hike from $7,200 to a whopping $75,700.
The large increase is based on the 2021 low-income level for a family of two, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to the city’s website.
Redondo City Council, meanwhile, also denied, 3-2, a substitute motion from Horvath to send the pay raise issue to voters instead of deciding amongst themselves.
