Nine resolutions that urge voter-approved charter amendments to overhaul how the city pays its employees is expected to be under Honolulu City Council review today.
That review by the Committee on Executive Management likely will advance the legislation to the full Council for deliberation at its June 5 meeting, according to Council staff.
“By vetting these measures, we aim to generate consensus around an approach, or combination of approaches, to present directly to the voters for their consideration,” Council staffers said Tuesday via email.
In April the Council first floated the related resolutions — each calling for questions to be placed on the 2024 general election ballot — to change or limit the Salary Commission’s powers to grant salaries.
Specifically, the legislation follows the city Salary Commission’s March 19 recommendation, with a formal adoption April 23, to grant a 3% or greater pay boost for the mayor, managing director, the Council and other elected and appointed, high-level city
officials.
The proposed pay
hikes by the Salary Commission, which is variously
appointed by the mayor and Council, come less than a year after the Council received a controversial 64% salary increase and the Honolulu mayor’s pay jumped nearly 12.6%.
However, the full Council and Mayor Rick Blangiardi have declared in recent weeks that they will reject any respective pay hikes. Compensation for all city workers will be included
in the city’s proposed
$3.63 billion operating budget, which is expected to be adopted by June.
Among the many proposed resolutions, the Council is expected to review:
>> Resolution 82: To place a 5% cap on any Salary Commission-recommended pay boosts. That resolution also would see the Salary Commission convene
biennially in every even-
numbered year, and establish salaries and salary
schedules for the following two fiscal years no later than the first day of May.
>> Resolution 85: To limit the Salary Commission’s ability to increase salaries by more than 10% a year.
>> Resolution 86: To
require the Council to hold
a public hearing on any
resolution issued by the
Salary Commission proposing to alter city officials’
salaries.
>> Resolution 87: To allow the Council to reject all or a portion of the salary recommendations of the city’s Salary Commission by a simple majority vote, or 50% plus one. Currently, the nine-member Council must achieve a three-quarters vote — or seven members of that body — to jettison in whole or in part the city’s next salary
schedule.
>> Resolution 91: To remove the Council from having a role in reviewing the salaries set by the Salary Commission, and to provide that the Salary Commission may not increase the salaries that it sets for elected officials by more than 3.5% per year.
At the Council’s April 17 meeting, Oahu resident Natalie Iwasa testified that making changes to the way the city appoints people to the Salary Commission should involve “good-governance nonprofit organizations” like Common Cause Hawaii or the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.
“Those types of organizations (could) have a representative on the commission,” she added. “And that, I feel, removes the relationship that might occur when the Council members or the mayor make the appointments themselves.”
At the same meeting, Oahu resident Choon James wanted to see higher civic-minded ideals for those entering
local government. “Serving public officers should not be a lifelong, profitable career,” she added.
Today’s committee meeting begins at 10 a.m.
