SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan is set to get a $20,000 pay raise and additional paid time off. City Council approved the item Tuesday night.
City documents indicated the raise is to cover cost-of-living increases. Six councilmembers voted "Yes" and 3 abstained, including Mayor Darrell Steinberg and councilmembers Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg addressed the additional 240 hours of leave time allocated to the city manager under the plan.
"I fully support his salary increase. He deserves it. Regarding the hours question, I am uncomfortable with. He has every right to make it. I am uncomfortable with (it) at this time, given the challenges we face in the upcoming year," said Steinberg.
Steinberg was referring to a multi-million dollar deficit the city faces next year.
"The resolution does include 2024. I want to just state the obvious, which is that though it would be our intention as a city council to provide a cost-of-living increase for our charter officers, given the deficit and given the challenges that we face there are no guarantees that we will be able to follow through on that," said Steinberg.
The city manager got a raise last November that bumped his salary to about $400,000 per year.
With the latest decision, that will increase to around $420,000.
The item was initially up for consideration in late August until it was removed from the agenda.
The proposal also faced some community opposition.
Some people questioned the raise as Chan is already the highest paid city employee, and some said the money could be better spent on resources for residents in need.
A city spokesperson did not answer ABC10's questions and instead referred us to councilmembers.
"The City Council oversees and supervises the charter officers, including the City Manager. They decide if a charter officer receives a salary increase or not and other details related to their compensation.
As the Council serves as the supervisorial body for the charter officers, the Councilmembers would be best suited to respond to questions about the City Manager’s compensation."
In addition to the city manager, the city attorney, clerk, treasurer and director of public safety accountability are also up for 5% increases.
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