Stop, Drop and Roll

18 September 2007 | Alameda City Council | John Knox White

In a recent posting about the non-issue that was the Alameda City Charter Revision discussion at the city council, I mentioned that the council compensation budget is $47,800 (I think I called it “about $50,000″ but have since adjusted it, with appropriate notes).

I received a number of inquiries about the amount and did a little digging (actually, it was a single email sent to the city manager’s office, but in terms of Alameda websites, that’s investigative reporting).

The $47,800 number is composed of two different amounts:

1. Council Pay - $8,400
2. Council Benefits (health care, PERS, Life Insurance, etc.) - $37,346

Council Pay is enshrined in the City Charter Article 2. Section 2-1.1 identifies $2400 a year that is paid to the Mayor:

Yada, yada, yada….” The Mayor shall receive a monthly compensation of Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00), payable at the time and in the manner as fixed by the Council, and shall be in addition to that provided in Sections 2-4 and 6-4.”

Section 2-4 then identifies that the entire council (Mayor included) receives $50 a meeting, for no more than 2 meetings a month, coming to $6000 a year.

Each Councilmember shall receive $50.00 for each meeting of the Council which he shall attend; provided, that no Councilmember shall receive such fees for more than two meetings in any one calendar month.

On top of that, the Mayor receives (or can receive) an additional $50 a month (section 6-4) for “stuff” (ok, “stuff” is not mentioned, but the sum appears to be a petty cash amount to cover the costs of the office). I’m not sure whether the use of “he” means that Mayor Johnson is not eligible for this payment, perhaps it’s time to look at the charter language and propose some changes?:

“There is hereby appropriated to the use of the Mayor in the discharge of his office the sum of fifty dollars each month for which he need furnish no vouchers.”

Council benefits are a bit harder to break down, not because it’s unclear as to what is available, but because not everyone participates in them. For now, I’ll just outline what is available to the council and we’ll all have to be comfortable in the knowledge that last year, the usage came to $37,346.

Council benefits:

• Public Employees Retirement System - Mayor = $453.17, Council = $151.06
• Dental Insurance - $1200 per councilmember/mayor
• Health Insurance - ranges from $2,905 - $15,107.40 depending on the plan chosen
• Life insurance - $36 per councilmember

So how does this play out in terms of possible benefits?

If no councilmember opted into any type of health insurance, the total benefits would be: $1237.41 for the whole council ($490-Mayor, $187-council). If everyone took the cheapest healthcare (plus dental): $21760 ($4594-Mayor, $4292-council). And if everyone went with the gold-plated plan (which probably means that medical bills on cost a “foot” rather than an “arm and a leg”) the total cost to the city would be $82,774 ($1697-Mayor, $16494-Council)

Since we know that last year the total benefit cost was $37,346, it’s safe to assume that some councilmembers are using these benefits and some are not. I have it on pretty good authority that the Mayor has opted out of the benefits side of things, but haven’t been able to track down the actual council usage.

The upcoming City Charter discussion is going to focus at least partly on the issue of compensation. It’s important to understand how the current compensation works, so that all discussions moving forward can be had with the knowledge that our current council is basically paid in crackers and monopoly money for the amount of time they spend in meetings and understanding local issues.