Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan will not be getting the $20,000 raise that was approved in December. Another public outcry has convinced the city council to table the item — perhaps for good.
Chan is already the state’s highest-paid city manager, and this would have been his sixth raise in seven years. But that’s not the only problem. The latest pay bump was first approved during a special meeting just before the holidays in violation of the state’s open meeting law.
“I owe the community an apology for allowing the matter to be heard at the holiday period of time when it was a violation of the Brown Act,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “Ignorance of the law is no defense.”
The council had a chance to re-approve the raise on Tuesday but did not. Instead, council members discussed how they could rebuild the public’s trust. They’re considering a new rule prohibiting Chan from placing his own compensation on the city council’s agenda.
District 6 City Council Member Eric Guerra, who voted for the raise in December, says he doesn’t want any discussion about boosting Chan’s salary until that change is implemented. The city manager’s salary is tabled “indefinitely,” he told KCRA.