D.C. Council members are deliberating whether to give themselves a major pay hike, taking their $92,500 to as much as $140,000 a year, to keep their salaries in relative line with the council chairman’s.
Legislation increasing the mayor’s salary to $200,000 and the council chairman’s pay to $190,000 will be considered by the council Tuesday. The salaries of the two D.C. leaders are linked in the charter — when one goes up, so must the other. And the chairman’s pay, under the D.C. Code, must be $10,000 less than the chief executive’s.
“We want to have a situation where we have some level of parity with what’s happening with mayor and council chairman,” said Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham.
At least four council members have talked about $115,000 as a compromise salary for themselves, sources say. Outgoing Ward 5 Council Member Vincent Orange plans to introduce emergency legislation to retain the $50,000 pay differential between the council members and chairman, which would take each member’s pay to $140,000 a year.
“… The salaries, current and proposed, are out of whack,” said Council Member Phil Mendelson. The council’s salary hasn’t increased since 1999, Mendelson said, though the chairman and mayor have received cost of living increases. Inflation has soared 25 percent in eight years, Mendelson said.
“The council of course is an equal branch of government,” he said. “And so the chairman’s salary should be comparable to the mayor’s. However, the other side of this is that folks would be stunned if the council members’ salaries were increased to $180,000.”
Ideally, Graham said, the city would have a salary commission to study and recommend raises. But there’s no time — the council must act before the end of the year.
“They need to make their case to the public,” said Dorothy Brizill, co-founder of watchdog D.C. Watch. “But that’s not what they’re going to do. They’re going to sneak it through.”
