Proposals to prevent another big pay hike move forward at City Council

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Several proposals are moving ahead at the Honolulu City Council that could change how — and how big — salary increases are made for city employees, including council members themselves.

Last year’s huge pay hike was still echoing through the council chambers as its members tackled several resolutions, all aimed at keeping it from happening again.

The Honolulu Salary Commission is currently considering 3% raises for city officials this year, including council members.

“Yes, that’s still on the table,” said Council Member Augie Tulba. “But the main concern is what happened six months ago with the 64% (raise), and people still are upset about that.”

The increase boosted their pay from approximately $69,000 a year to around $113,000, although Tulba and fellow council members Andria Tupola and Radiant Cordero refused it.

“Hopefully we can discuss this and get something so that any future council doesn’t have to face what we did last year,” said Council Member Val Okimoto.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Despite hefty opposition, commission approves 64% pay hike for city councilmembers
• Commission votes to recommend a 63% raise for City Council members
• Public input sought on proposed salary hikes for some top city officials

During its meeting Wednesday, the full council discussed several proposed charter amendments to prevent a repeat. They include a resolution to limited future pay increases for city employees to 10% a year.

The salary commission acts independently. Commission Chair Malia Espinda said last year’s big increase was a correction because many previous city councils had turned down pay hikes. She also cited the council members’ workloads.

“To me, if you’re on call 24/7, responding to your constituencies and working here 60 to 80 hours, we made to the correction to your salaries as such,” Espinda told the council members.

There’s also a measure to give the city council more power to reject raises with a simply majority vote, instead of a three-quarter supermajority.

Another proposal would require public hearings on pay hikes.

“The public must have the right to discuss and participate in all the proposed salary commissions,” said testifier Choon James. “We should not be allowing an unelected commission to have so much power, whatever it is.”

“We gotta lead by example, and it’s taxpayers’ money,” Tulba said after the meeting. “So they should have a say in how this process is done.”

Others want changes to the commission itself.

“The other thought that I had was using our good governance, non-government organizations, like Common Cause Hawaii, the League of Women Voters — those types of organizations, to have a representative on the commission,” Natalie Iwasa testified.

The measures were unanimously approved by the eight council members present; Tyler Dos Santos-Tam was absent from that part of the meeting.

The proposals still face committee hearings and a final council vote before heading to the mayor — and the general election ballot.

“A lot of what the salary commission does — not a lot, all of it — is dictated in the charter,” said Council Member Andria Tupola.

“So unless we put the guardrails or that guidance in the charter, then they have only that to follow.”