Two Honolulu City Council members are requesting that the newly adopted salary hikes for the city’s top elected and appointed officials be rejected by their Council colleagues.
On April 27, Council members Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola co-introduced two resolutions, 81 and 82, that, if approved, would either wholly or partially nix last week’s actions taken by the Honolulu Salary Commission to set the city’s salary schedule for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
As adopted April 25, the mayor’s annual salary would rise 12.56%, to $209,856 from its current $186,432. Likewise, the yearly salary for the City Council chair — the seat that leads the nine-member panel — would rise to $123,288 from $76,968, a 60.2% jump, while an individual Council member’s salary would get a 64.4% pay bump to $113,304, up from $68,904.
The Salary Commission’s adopted pay raises take effect 60 days after adoption unless rejected entirely or in part by a three-quarters vote — or seven votes — of the Council’s entire membership, according to the City Charter.
To that end, Resolution 81, as drafted, requests the Council reject increases
for the entire 2023 salary schedule — namely, the city administration, including the mayor’s seat — “in light of current economic conditions in the City.” Also as drafted, Resolution 82 calls for the panel to reject salary boosts for the Council members and the Council chair because their respective pay increases “are unreasonably high and should not be allowed to take effect.”
Council member Tulba said he’s opposed to granting raises to the Council or city administration due to economic and financial
reasons.
“We’ve just come out of the pandemic, and a lot of people are still struggling. My district — Waipahu and Ewa — was the largest as far as unemployment is concerned, so there’s a lot of people in my district who are still recovering, still trying, and we’re in a recession already — nobody wants to talk about that,” Tulba
told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “And the property (tax) assessments going up high, a lot of people are still struggling, and I hear it … to use the money that we collected (in property taxes) for a raise right now — optics-wise, morally-wise — for me is not good.”
He added no one he’s spoken to from the community supports new Council raises. “No one has said to me, ‘Yeah, Augie, you should take the money.’”
And Tulba added he did not run for elective office to make a lot of money.
“For me it’s just a calling, it’s not about a paycheck,” he said. “The main reason is I want to serve and I understand the role of the Council member is to keep the mayor accountable, to make sure that the people’s money is being used the correct way.”
Meanwhile, due to the state’s sunshine law, which prevents Council members from talking official business outside of city meetings, Tulba said he did not know how others on the Council might vote with regard to these resolutions or even whether the resolutions will be scheduled for review at the next full City Council meeting on May 17 or be sent to a Council-run committee for discussion only.
“We don’t know,” said Tulba, “it’s up to the chair.”
During the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program on Friday, Council Chair Tommy Waters remained vague on how the panel he leads should proceed on city pay hikes.
“I will say that the Salary Commission sets the salary, not the City Council,” Waters said, yet he noted the City Charter “puts the burden on us to reject or accept” changes to the city’s salary schedule.
In the past 33 years, Waters asserted, Council salaries have been “frozen”
19 times by various sitting City Councils.
“And I think that’s because you’re making it a political decision when it really shouldn’t be a political decision,” said Waters. “I think that’s why it’s artificially low, because we have to decide on it on our own and, for the most part, people are running for reelection; they don’t want to stick their neck out, and so they
reject the salaries as
recommended by the
commission.”
