City Council member Augie Tulba says his effort to discuss and possibly thwart the more than 64% pay hike going to the Council on July 1 has failed.

On Monday, Tulba said his hoped-for special Council meeting on Friday — the last day to potentially reject the pay raises before they start — missed the city’s six-day public-notice requirement for such a meeting.

It had to be posted by June 16.

And on top of that, obtaining five Council members’ signatures — or a majority of the nine-member Council needed to formally set that meeting — also did not materialize.

“I only got three,” Tulba said.

Council members Radiant Cordero, Andria Tupola and Tulba himself comprise the three. A fourth, Council member Matt Weyer, who previously professed public opposition to these Council raises, did not sign, he added.

“That’s it,” Tulba said. “Because we couldn’t make that six-day public notice, the raise goes into effect July 1.”

According to Tulba, he worked for two months to try to persuade his Council colleagues to stop the pay hikes and allow the public to weigh in on the matter.

“I’m bummed, of course,” said Tulba. “It’s kind of disappointing because the people should have a voice, and they should have the last say, so I feel like they didn’t get that opportunity.”

Meantime, Tulba claimed he’ll return any Council pay hike he’s to receive to the city’s general fund.

Following the city Salary Commission’s April 25 adoption of the city’s 2024 fiscal year salary schedule for its public workers, the Council’s salaries were boosted to $113,304, up from $68,904, and the Council chair’s pay to $123,288 from $76,968.

Two days later Tulba and Tupola advanced two pieces of legislation: Resolution 82, which requests a formal rejection of Council salary hikes, and Resolution 81, which wholly rejects the city’s entire salary schedule for next fiscal year. To date, neither resolution has been set for Council discussion or review.

But those in support of pay hikes as well as a “full-time Council” also responded.

On May 25, Council Chair Tommy Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina pushed Bill 33 and Resolution 109, which each seek to prohibit Council members from holding any outside employment or having financial gain beyond an elective Council seat. Resolution 109, a charter amendment, would require voter approval to take effect, while Bill 33 would commence if it receives Council approval.

At the June 7 Council meeting, the panel voted 7-2, with Tulba and Tupola dissenting, to advance Resolution 109 to a Council committee for further review and public discussion. But at the same meeting and following public comments against the measure, Waters pulled Bill 33 from the agenda, and no vote was held on that proposed ordinance.

Although some, like Tulba, have been against the Council salary increases from the start, most, like Waters and Kia‘aina and others on the Council, have supported it all along.

“I understand that the recommended increase for Council members is a huge leap, and the community is understandably alarmed. The public should hold their elected officials accountable for the legislative decisions made, and I appreciate my constituents reaching out to me to share both support and concern,” Council member Calvin Say previously told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser via email. “I have shared that I am in support of a salary increase, and, as the Council has a two-term limit, I believe this increase will help to make the position more viable for future candidates. I would not want to put new members in the situation of voting on bringing their own salaries up to a level equitable to their administrative counterparts, as we are facing now.”

Besides the Council, the mayor and the city’s top appointed executives also will see a nearly 12.6% pay bump.

As adopted, the mayor’s annual pay would rise to $209,856 from its current $186,432, while the annual salary for the managing director’s position would increase to $200,712 from the current pay of $178,320.

“The Mayor and the Managing Director supported (and continue to support) fair increases for City appointed leadership and have been transparent in their positions,” Ian Scheu­ring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, previously told the Star- Advertiser via email. “The Mayor and Managing Director have also addressed the topic on two occasions at Town Halls, supporting fair increases in salaries and urging community members to get fully informed on the complexity of the salary issue and process.”

But for several sign- waving protesters, who, of late, appear on a near-daily basis outside the front doors of Honolulu Hale on South King Street, the issue of the Council’s pending pay hikes is not complex at all, as the signs they hold for passing pedestrians and motorists to read state, “City Council — Greedy &Corrupt,” “Reject Da Raise” and “64% Pay Raise or Recall: You Choose.”

Likewise, a fledgling movement to recall the whole of the City Council save two of its members — Tulba and Tupola, whose current terms on the panel end in 2025 — also has surfaced in recent weeks.