The D.C. Council’s decision to consider giving itself a cost of living pay raise before the next session begins in January is a matter of poor timing, experts said Wednesday.
With a current salary set in 1999 at $92,500, D.C. Council members already make more than their counterparts in the region. Now, one bill pending before the Council, introduced Tuesday by Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-At large, seeks to make the members among the highest paid in the nation with a salary boost to $115,000.
“The first problem is the general public has not had a pay raise,” said Dick Simpson, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Members had the chance Tuesday to raise their salaries, and those of the incoming mayor and Council chair, but opted not to because both bills were emergency legislation and several Council members felt the public had not had enough time to comment.
“You try to explain that and it’s not very explainable,” Councilmember Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, said Wednesday.
The Council must pass the new bill, which would also create a seven-person commission to evaluate salaries, before the current legislative period ends in order for it to take effect when the incoming council is sworn in January. That rate, if passed, would make D.C. Council members the third-highest paid in the nation, following Los Angeles and Chicago.
Another bill, introduced by Councilmember Vincent Gray, D-Ward 7, would establish a five-member commission to study salary increases, but does not include a proposed raise.
Bernard Ross, a professor emeritus at American University’s School of Public Affairs, called the current rate “a sizable” sum.
“I don’t think District residents really care that the District is really a state, a city and county,” Rosssaid. “They just want their services.”
