Questions about whether city staff properly posted the meeting agenda prompted the Lompoc City Council to delay for two weeks a discussion on whether to approve a boost in travel allowance for themselves and a future pay increase.
A draft agenda was posted on the city website, without staff reports, last week. The final version was not uploaded until Monday morning, after the 72-hour notice required by the Ralph M. Brown (Open Meetings) Act.
“It was simply an honest mistake and that’s the only reason it didn’t end up getting posted on the website,” City Manager Patrick Wiemiller said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Assistant City Attorney June Ailin contended Lompoc met the legal requirement for posting the agenda at City Hall and could discuss the items Tuesday night since the required brief general descriptions were included on the draft agenda.
However, council members expressed concerns about transparency as they chose to postpone the item on whether to hike the City Council’s and mayor’s salaries and increase travel allowances.
While the Brown Act has long required public agencies to post agendas at a “freely accessible” location, a 2012 amendment added a requirement the agenda also must available on the agency’s website, if it has one.
Along with the word “draft” in large light gray letters across the page, the early version of the Lompoc council agenda included what some viewed as incomplete items. It listed “Discussion and Possible Action of Council Compensation” but the recommendation said “Council …” without elaboration.
Despite assurances from the attorney that the city met the legal standard for posting, council members said they wanted to postpone the item.
“I myself feel very uncomfortable with proceeding with new business item number three, which discusses compensation for the City Council,” Mayor Bob Lingl said.
The council pay-hike matter and an item on utility billing will return to the agenda for the Aug. 18 meeting, officials said.
An item about establishing government-to-government relations with Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians was included in draft agenda with a staff report so the council dealt with that matter Tuesday.
Five years ago, council members slashed their travel allowance by 20 percent in the wake of the recession, and as city workers had to take unpaid furloughs. The travel-allowance reduction has remained although furloughs have since been eliminated.
With the reduction, the travel allowance for a Lompoc council member is $183 a month while the Lompoc mayor gets $282, the staff report said. Without the reduction, the rates would be $285.75 and $388.13.
By comparison, the cities of Solvang, Goleta and Santa Barbara don’t provide a travel allowance, while Buellton pays $75 a month, Santa Maria, $280 and San Luis Obispo, $100, according to a salary survey included in the staff report.
Mayoral travel allowance rates range from zero in Solvang, Goleta and Santa Barbara to $476 in Santa Maria.
In addition to repealing the travel allowance reduction, the council will assess whether a salary adjustment is appropriate for the future members.
Currently, council members for the city with a population of 43,509 receive $600 a month. By comparison, other cities’ compensation ranges from $440 in Buellton (population 4,828), $1,050 in Santa Maria (population 102,216) and $3,313 for Santa Barbara (population 90,412).
Mayoral compensation of $800 in Lompoc compares to $440 for Buellton, $1,300 for Santa Maria and $4,142 for Santa Barbara.
Staff has recommended Lompoc come close to the compensation paid in San Luis Obispo, which has a similar number of residents. The new Lompoc rates with travel allowance and salary are $1,259 for council members and $1,588 for mayor per month.
Lompoc last updated council wages in 1999, the only time in the past 30 years, city staff noted.The new salaries won’t take effect until January 2017, under Lompoc regulations, so some of the current five councilmen may not benefit since some terms expire in 2016.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.