Rohnert Park City Council Salaries Lower Than Recommended by State

Rohnert Park City Councilmembers get paid an average of $10,948 a year, according to an investigation of council salaries by the Los Angeles Times released Tuesday.

The salaries are much lower than the $16,255 guideline set by the state, a trend that was repeated in many California cities, the analysis of salaries from the State Controller's Office found. 

The investigation comes on the heels of the corruption in Bell, Calif. where council members took home up to $100,000 a year, while the City Manager made more than $1 million. Eight people were arrested.

Though Rohnert Park councilmembers are paid $411 per month according to this year's budget (about $200 a meeting), the Times story noted that "such add-ons as health benefits and pay for sitting on special boards push some council members’ compensation above the line" — such as in Bell.

Here, councilmembers are allowed to spend up to $1,000 per year each for travel and meetings, can opt in for healthcare benefits; and the five members together are given $5,425 to use for legislative trips or represent the city in an official capacity.

The 2009 City Council, made up of Aimee Breeze, Joe Callinan, Jake Mackenzie, Pam Stafford and Gina Belforte, voted to cut their salaries almost in half — reducing monthly pay by $300, which was paid for through the Community Development Commission, the city's .

"When I got elected in 2008, the council majority voted for a big cut in pay because we wanted to show leadership," said councilmember Joe Callinan. "We faced an $8 million deficit, we were closing pools, we closed restrooms in the parks and we cut the [Rohnert Park Public Safety Officer's Association] $3.5 million that first year."

"We can’t expect citizens and public employees to make sacrifices if we’re not making them ourselves," Callinan said.

“We were earning roughly $700 a month for four years, and then in February of 2009 we unanimously voted to reduce our salaries back to $400 a month,” said Vice Mayor Jake Mackenzie. “It was the right decision in the context of what everybody’s been going through.”

“We’ve been working very hard with the bargaining units and with all city employees and have reduced salaries and benefits, and now we’ve finally arrived at a balanced budget thanks to everyone’s sacrifice,” Mackenzie added. “The City Council was the first group to actually do that over two years ago.”

Councilmember Pam Stafford said there's more in it for her than the money.

"I don’t do it for the pay, I do it because I want to work in the community," she said. "And I think that's true for the other City Council members as well."

Councilmember Amy Ahanotu agreed the cut was fair, considering massive across-the-board cuts citywide to services and employee salaries and benefits.

"We can't expect employees to take a paycut, and not take one ourselves," Ahanotu said.

"It it low?," he said. "Yes, but is it appropriate at this time? Yes."

Other Sonoma County cities fared about the same as Rohnert Park, all paying their councils less than is required by the state. In Sonoma, City Council members received an average of $6,080 a year, while in Petaluma members get an average of $8,131 a year for their work, including a $1,693 healthcare benefit.

However, in Napa, council members were paying themselves an average of  $47,700 a year, more than twice the amount recommended by the state, according to the investigation. Napa Patch is chasing the story.

Editor's note: Rohnert Park's City Council pay, according to California Government Code Section 36516, is based on the city's population. The code says that cities between 35,000 and 50,000 people should pay their council $400 a month. Only an ordinance or an amendment to an ordinance can raise that pay, and it can only go up five percent a year.