Lynwood Council Gives Self Hefty Pay Raise

As most local gadflies took a break from hounding City Hall between Christmas and New Year’s, Lynwood’s council members approved themselves a raise of about 100%.

In a 4-0 vote, the council approved resolutions that awarded members $450 for attending each meeting of two city agencies and increased the number of times those agencies meet to at least two monthly meetings each.

The increase was adopted shortly after 9 a.m. on Dec. 29 at back-to-back special meetings of the two agencies, the Lynwood Information Inc. and the Lynwood Public Finance Authority. It was passed so quickly that one councilman who helped approved the deal later said its contents surprised even him. He has since reversed his vote.

As news of the increase spread slowly through the mainly blue-collar city, some activists have expressed outrage.

“It’s totally ridiculous,� said Mario Gutierrez, a warehouse worker who regularly attends council meetings. “They’re making so much of a part-time job when they hardly do any work.�

If the part-time council members attend all the meetings, it will mean an annual compensation of about $41,500. The pay at one of the county’s poorest cities will dwarf that earned by elected officials in Long Beach, a city roughly six times the size of Lywnood, where council members earn $28,400.

The resolutions sidestep a state law that prohibits raises of more than 5% a year for elected officials in general-law cities, unless approved by referendum.

According to the minutes of the Dec. 29 meetings, there was no public discussion of the resolutions, and the two meetings together lasted a total of three minutes.

At last week’s council meeting, Arturo Reyes told colleagues that he made a mistake in approving the increase and wanted to change his vote. The attempt led to a bitter exchange of words with Mayor Ricardo Sanchez, who supports the increase.

“I didn’t read the resolution,� Reyes said later. “I made a mistake. . . . I’ll take the blame for not reading.�

Of the increase, he said: “My personal feeling is that we should not get it. We don’t do anything on those agencies.�

But on Monday, Sanchez accused Reyes of lying to the community to disguise his support for the raise, arguing that Reyes asked plenty of questions about the resolutions before the meetings and knew what he was voting for.

“He asked all those questions. Why is he retracting [his vote]?� Sanchez asked Monday.

Although Sanchez declined to comment on the increase, other council members were quick to argue that the raise was not overly generous.

“It’s not generous at all,� said Armando Rea, who was absent for the Dec. 29 meetings but said he supports the raise. “The resolutions simply compensates the council members for their hours of duty and time taken in order to serve . . . the constituents of Lynwood.�

Louis Byrd, who voted for the measures, said critics of the increase were part of a small clique attempting to oust the mayor by organizing a recall effort.

Byrd said the new compensation package reflects the added work that council members are devoting to City Hall. In the past, he said, the pay has been part-time, while the workload has been full-time. Critics should try to understand that council members will take on increased duties on those two agencies, he said.

“In their estimation maybe it was [too generous], but the facts are that there is a lot of work to be done and somebody’s got to do it,� Byrd said.

Council members will now earn far more than the median household income in Lynwood, which stands at about $27,300 per year, according to 1998 income projections by Claritas Inc., a Virginia-based marketing data firm.

The members’ monthly compensation package now includes an $804 base salary, a $300 stipend for attending council meetings, a $500 car allowance and $60 for attending both regular meetings of the city’s redevelopment agency.

Now, with the new increases, council members will draw $450 for each meeting of the Lynwood Information Inc. and Public Finance Authority, which will be held no less than twice a month.

The nearby city of Bell Gardens drew attention when its council members similarly voted themselves a hefty pay increase in 1997, but it was not as large as Lynwood’s.

All five Lynwood council members attended Monday afternoon meetings of the Lynwood Information Inc. and the Lynwood Public Finance Authority. There was no discussion of last month’s compensation changes. But after the meeting, Edwin Jacinto, who is campaigning to recall Sanchez and attended the meetings, condemned the raise.

“They shouldn’t give them any more money,� he said. “The City Council [membership] should be a privilege--to serve the community, not for their personal gain.�

The Lynwood Public Finance Authority deals with issues relating to the city’s tax bonds. City records show that the authority’s board members have met roughly a dozen times since its creation in 1993, mostly approving receipt of the treasurer’s investment reports with little comment. The Public Finance Authority paid its board members $100 for every meeting they attended.

The Lynwood Information Inc., which deals with the city’s public relations, met once a month. Its meetings, public records show, have been similarly swift, rarely lasting more than three minutes.

City officials declined to tell The Times how much the agency’s board of directors earned in the past for attending meetings unless the request was made in writing, but Reyes said he thought the compensation was about $50 per meeting.