Dublin joins Bay Area cities bumping council, mayor salaries after new state law

DUBLIN — The next time a new City Council is sworn into Dublin, councilmembers will make an extra $183.18 every month, or another $2,198.16 annually.

The Dublin City Council this month approved a new pay rate for councilmembers and the mayor after a state law that went into effect this year allowed cities to raise their council’s and mayor’s salaries based on growing populations.

Dublin joins the growing list of Bay Area cities that have decided to give their councilmembers a pay bump — courtesy of Senate Bill 329 that effectively gave cities the ability to adjust their council salaries based on population growth and inflation. The compensation schedule for most California cities had not changed since 1984, according to the bill.

Other nearby cities that voted to boost council pay this year include Palo Alto, Fremont, Los Altos, San Mateo, Richmond, Hayward, Alameda and more. Richmond, a charter city, agreed to raise councilmembers’ annual salaries a startling 80%, from $27,000 to $47,000.

Whoever the new Dublin mayor is by the end of this year’s election will receive a monthly salary of $2,400, which includes the base council member salary of $1,600 plus an additional $800 for being the mayor, as permitted in the city’s municipal code. Annually, council members will make $19,200.

Melissa Hernandez, former mayor of Dublin, said at a Feb. 20 council meeting that the position deserves it.

“I work 24-7, except for the six hours of sleep I get every night,” she said.

Hernandez, who vacated her mayoral role earlier this year and now serves on the BART Board, was a major supporter of raising the council’s salaries to account for the extra hours of unpaid work she did as Dublin’s top elected official.

“I think it’s important to have good leadership in your city and all the cities,” Hernandez said.

Dublin meets the new bill’s requirement to raise salaries to a cap of $1,600 monthly, falling into the category of cities with populations between 50,000 and 75,000.

The city’s population was estimated to be 70,061 in 2023 according to the city website.

Cities with less than 35,000 residents are capped at $950 monthly; those between 35,000 and 50,000 reach $1,275 monthly; between 75,000 and 150,000 is $1,900 monthly; between 150,000 and 250,000 is $2,550 monthly; and over $250,000 is $3,200 monthly.

Hernandez’s sentiments were echoed by Councilmembers Jean Josey and Kashef Qaadri, who both heavily supported the raises.

“I agree from the standpoint of democracy,” Qaadri said. “This is a very small delta. It’s a hundred dollars and some change from where we are now. It’s not a lot of money.”

Qaadri offered to the council that “anything we can do to encourage leadership in our city is important. I see it as an investment and not an expense.”

Josey agreed, saying, “It’s not a raise for us. It is an investment in the future.”

She said the small increase, which will cost the city about $12,000 annually, would be a stepping stone toward inviting new citizens of the city’s “very much changing demographic” to serve in office.

She pointed out to the council that, traditionally, those who serve on Dublin’s council typically “are sitting in a well-paid job” or have a spouse who supports their household income or they are retired and they have a pension and don’t need the council’s income to supplement their time.

But she noted that there are often hours when she attends events or her colleagues put in work for the city, and they go unpaid.

“And so it becomes a calculation,” Josey said. “‘Do I want to run for council?’ $1,200 a month, $1,600 a month, whatever it is — that’s not enough of an income that I can devote the time to it that I want to devote to it.”

Then-Councilman Mike McCorriston, who took over the mayorship following Hernandez’s exit, debated with his colleagues, calling the raises a “token.” He said while others see the raises as an investment, “I just don’t buy that.”

“This is where we agree to disagree,” McCorriston told Josey. “I don’t think this incremental amount is more than a token. If we want to really do it, then we increase it far more than this to make it palatable for people who need it.”

“I think that if somebody has the passion, they’re just going to do it anyway. And it’s just another $100 here or there,” McCorriston said.

He requested the city consider a smaller raise instead of the state-allowed $1,600 per month.

“I just think that this is sending the wrong message,” he said. “It will always be a part-time job, and I think everybody on council, and I can certainly speak for myself, certainly we have privileges. But we’ve also had very, very demanding jobs at one point or another in our careers here. And we’ve been able to manage that.”

The council voted 4-1 to allow the raises, with McCorriston being the sole dissenter.