The Santa Rosa City Council will discuss Tuesday several items that could appear on the November ballot, including a measure to increase council compensation and the renewal of a public safety tax.
Voters in 2004 approved the Public Safety and Violence Prevention Funding Measure, known as Measure O, to provide a dedicated funding stream for police, fire and prevention programs in Santa Rosa.
But the quarter-cent sales tax, which generates about $10 million annually, is set to expire in March 2025.
City Hall administrators recommend extending the tax for 20 years and leaving the allocations to police, fire and violence prevention programs unchanged. Police and fire services each receive 40% of the funding and the remaining 20% is allocated to prevention, though some council members and residents have indicated they’d like to change how much goes to each bucket.
The council will also discuss three proposed amendments to the city’s charter ― effectively its constitution ― to increase council pay, ratify district-based elections and update and modernize the document’s language.
Elected officials during a June 21 meeting indicated support for sending all three measures to the ballot and directed staff to draft ballot language and a resolution to call for the election, but council members couldn’t agree on details related to the pay question, including how much of a bump council members should receive.
Some council members favored moving forward with a committee’s recommendation to tie council pay to the area median income for a three-person household, which would provide a more than sixfold raise, while two council members wanted to see council members paid more.
Proposed charter changes
A committee of 21 Santa Rosa residents spent six months studying updates to the city charter, which must be approved by voters. Of the dozen topics the committee reviewed, they ultimately recommended that the council send three measures to the November ballot:
- Increasing council pay.
- Updating the charter to bring it into compliance with the city’s new district-based elections. If it fails it could be up to a judge to decide the future of the city’s election method.
- Several small changes to update the charter language and revisions to clarify certain city procedures, such as allowing the city manager to craft a two-year budget or more frequent amendments to the charter. This would appear as one comprehensive question on the ballot.
During the June 21 meeting, council members supported sending all three to the ballot. But while elected officials believe higher pay could attract more diverse and qualified candidates for public office and would more fairly reflect the hours put into the job, they were divided on how best to achieve more meaningful compensation.
Santa Rosa council members currently receive an $800 monthly stipend and the mayor receives $1,200 a month ― $ 9,600 and $14,400 annually, respectively ― plus health insurance and other benefits valued up to $33,700 per year.
Under the committee’s proposal, pay would be tied to the area median income, a figure set by federal housing officials and updated each year. The mayor would receive 100% of the median income for a three-person household, $101,500, and council members would receive two-thirds of that, or $66,990.
Mayor Chris Rogers, Vice Mayor Eddie Alvarez and Council member Tom Schwedhelm favored moving forward with the committee’s suggestion.
But council members Victoria Fleming and Natalie Rogers told staff they want to see council members and the mayor receive the same pay equal to 100% of the area median income. While two-thirds of the area median income represents a sizable increase, it’s still not enough to support a family in Sonoma County with rising costs of living, they said.
Rogers said she works three jobs to help provide for her family, but that’s not sustainable in the long run.
“I can only sustain that for so long before something has to give,” she told her colleagues, adding that if she doesn’t run for reelection she worries the low pay could be a hindrance to attracting diverse people to run.
The difference in pay also creates disparity between the six council members and the mayor and Fleming worried it could lead people to seek the position for the wrong reason. The committee recommended higher pay for the mayor because they considered it a full-time job.
“The mayor does do extra work but the mayor is a person amongst equals,” Fleming said. “It should be somebody that is well aware that they are a leader among their peers and, to that end, I think that having a disparity in pay between the mayor and the council members of $30,000 to $40,000 really makes the mayoral position one that’s not only more powerful but really set apart.”
