UPDATE: The council and mayor voted unanimously for 10% pay increases across the board. The increase includes council members and the mayor. That's a little more than $1,000 total for the council members and a little more than $4,000 total for the mayor
Even with this raise, the Mayor of National City is the lowest paid fulltime mayor in San Diego County.
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NATIONAL CITY, Calif -- The National City City Council debated Tuesday night giving itself a 10% raise and Mayor Ron Morrison a 32% raise.
“I think this is a fair jump to make at this point,” said Mayor Morrison.
Right now, Morrison makes about $47,000 a year as a full-time mayor. That makes him the lowest paid full-time mayor in San Diego County. If he receives the 32% raise, it would increase his base pay to roughly $65,000 but he’d still be the lowest paid full-time mayor in the county.
“Almost everyone in this (National City) City Hall with the exception of maybe receptionist and maybe janitor make more than what the mayor does,” said Morrison.
National City Councilwoman Mona Rios argues that a raise should be on par with the council’s 10% maximum raise.
“No one deserves (a 32%) raise,” Rios said. “I think its something our community needs to come in, to be engaged in, to weigh in.
Mayor Morrison argued the low salary won’t attract quality candidates to the office.
“One of these days there’s going to be someone else in this job and we need to make sure we’re bringing in competent people and not just people that know how to run a campaign,” he said. “If you look at the hours that I put in and the hours that I would expect the next mayor to put in, and we should have that expectation for this type of job, I’m basically at minimum wage at this stage.”
According to the US Census Bureau, the average household income in National City is approximately $41,000 a year. The San Diego County average is $64,300.
