How Does Our City Council’s Pay Stack Up?

When the small Southern California city of Bell was exposed in July 2010 as paying incredibly exorbitant salaries - its city manager earned a whopping $800,000 a year while part-time council members brought home as much as $100,000 a year – public outcry over hefty pay for city officials reached a fever pitch.

The City of Mill Valley  at that time, as a voluntary League of California Cities study revealed that former City Manager Anne Montgomery earned $315,000 in 2009. That was largely the result of Montgomery’s excess of accrued vacation and sick time, which accounted for $124,000 of the compensation for Montgomery, a Mill Valley employee for 22 years.

But what about the Mill Valley City Council? What sort of salary and benefits do the city's five councilmembers get for all those ribbon cuttings, late nights at meetings and hefty reports to digest in advance of them?

In a study of 2009 data, the Los Angeles Times analyzed the compensation of councilmembers from cities and towns throughout California.

Mill Valley came out on the bottom end of the spectrum. Under Chapter 2.2 (attached at right) of the city’s Municipal Code, councilmembers earn $4,200 a year, or $350 a month. That falls well below the legal limit of $12,191 that councilmembers could have earned under a formula based on their 1984 population with a 5 percent annual increase.

The formula, dictated by statutes handed down from the state Legislature, applies to all but the 120 California charter cities like oakland and San Francisco, which can set their own council pay.

The Times' analysis of compensation figures found that the vast majority of elected leaders earn less than what is allowed by state law.

“Unlike the notorious Bell, most California cities fall well within state guidelines for council salaries,” the report concluded.

Most Marin towns and cities fared equally well in the analysis. Here’s a chart that includes the compensation and the formula-driven pay limit for Marin’s councils, as well as the two worst offenders in California.