The Honolulu Salary Commission voted 5-1 Tuesday to give the mayor, City Council members and most city department heads raises of 8 percent next year.
Sara Buehler, commission chairwoman, said two reasons guided the decision: Most of Honolulu’s top officials make significantly less than counterparts in municipalities of sizes similar to Honolulu, and their pay has not kept up with the raises of other Honolulu employees.
Even with 8 percent increases, there would still be eight civil servant managers making more than their department head bosses, and 17 such managers earning more than the deputy department directors, Buehler told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after the commission meeting.
"Our charge at the commission is twofold: to look at the reasonable relationship between city employee salaries as well as adequate compensation for the work performed," Buehler said.
Not only are top city officials not making as much as their counterparts in municipalities of similar size; they are getting paid less than their neighbor island counterparts when population and agency sizes are considered, she said.
"We are not adequately paying our city workers for adequate work, and if you look at the facts and figures provided by the Department of Human Resources, there is not currently a sensible relationship between the department heads and their civil service managers," Buehler said.
City Human Resources Director Carolee Kubo told commission members that state law requires civil service managers to be paid at least equal to counterparts and subordinates who have been receiving pay increases due to collective bargaining.
Commission member Kevin Sakamoto was the lone "no" vote. Sakamoto tried unsuccessfully to change the package so that the Council chairman and nine other Council members receive 4 percent raises, leaving all other recommended raises unchanged.
Sakamoto said after the meeting that he understood the reasoning of his commission colleagues but that he also recognized there was some opposition to 8 percent raises.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin and Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi signed a letter urging the commission to reduce its proposed raises by 50 percent for most department directors. "The City Council is very much concerned about how this affects our taxpaying constituents," they said.
Given those comments, Sakamoto said he believes it would be easier to get the commission’s recommendations approved by the Council if it includes the lower increases for Council members.
The Council has the final say on the raises. It can vote to approve or reject the raise for each position on a line-by-line basis, but it cannot alter the amounts.
Last year the commission approved a 4 percent pay raise package only to see it shot down by Council members who cited the need for fiscal restraint.
Council members have declined raises for themselves in recent years and have not had any increases since July 1, 2008, according to Human Resources Department officials.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell did not accept his 4 percent raise for the current year and has also continued to take a 5 percent voluntary reduction that was instituted in 2013.
Caldwell gave no testimony to the commission on the issue of pay raises for top officials. Jesse Broder Van Dyke, the mayor’s spokesman, said Caldwell is holding off until the Council approves the city’s operating budget.
No one from the public testified at Tuesday’s meeting. City officials aside, the commission has received one correspondence from the public since the 8 percent proposal was first made public April 18. A Palolo resident emailed, urging the commission to reject the raises.
