Members of the Charter Review Commission are recommending big salary increases for San Antonio City Council members, as well increasing council terms from two to four years.
City Council members currently make $45,722 per year, while the mayor makes $61,725 per year.
The subcommittee tasked with recommending potential changes to the City Charter that voters would have to approve is advising raising council members’ pay to between $75,000 to $125,000 and raising the mayor’s pay to between $90,000 and $140,000, according to a presentation Monday.
The exact salaries have yet to be determined and would be indexed based on the median base salary of director-level employees at the city, meaning it would automatically increase as those salaries increase.
The median base salary of director-level employees, whose pay is set by the city manager, is currently about $193,000. The commission is recommending council members make between 39% to 65% of that median.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), who was a teacher before he was elected to the council in 2021, attended Monday’s meeting and said he was surprised by the commission’s recommendations. He has advocated for a smaller pay increase, as well as barring outside employment for council members.
“What I think is going to be important is for voters to see the value in where their money is going,” he said of the commission’s recommendation. “They get to decide.”
Councilman John Courage (D9) signed up to speak at Monday’s public meeting and also suggested a smaller pay increase.
“I think we should look at the average family income in the City of San Antonio, which right now is around $60,000 a year, and that should be what council members make,” he said.
The commission’s recommendations would have to be approved by voters on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The commission also is considering giving City Council full control over how much to pay the city manager, who helps set the pay of department leaders used in the index.
VIA Metropolitan Transit Director of Communications Josh Baugh, who serves on the subcommittee overseeing council pay, said the city bases salaries for director-level positions on market analysis and budget, putting a “buffer” between them and the council that could help prevent a quid pro quo situation.
Such a boost to the salaries of City Council members and the mayor would be unprecedented in a city known for lower-than-average wages.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates San Antonio’s median household income was just above $55,000 in 2021. A recent “community wellbeing survey” conducted by the city determined nearly half of San Antonians either cannot cover basic expenses or are one financial emergency away from not being able to afford necessities.
Voters rejected a council pay increase in 2004. They approved one with 55% of the vote in 2015 after local business groups backed a campaign to support it, changing San Antonio’s status as having among the lowest-compensated major city officeholders in the nation.
Fort Worth voters recently rejected a charter amendment that would have raised council members’ salaries to $45,000 from $25,000 and the mayor’s pay to $60,000 from $29,000. It was the second time in six years that the city’s voters had said no to a pay raise for City Council members, and the mayor took on a second job this year.
A presentation Monday from Luisa Casso, chief of staff at Trinity University who chairs the subcommittee looking into council pay and compensation, focused on comparing San Antonio’s council pay to that of several other cities, as well as making the salary match the job responsibilities.
The group interviewed former council members Ana Sandoval (D7), William “Cruz” Shaw (D2), Reed Williams (D8) and Rey Saldaña (D4) to seek input on various aspects of their service, including the financial struggles of doing the job with the current council salary.
“You just can’t understand what it is like to be a City Council member until you speak with them and have that opportunity to understand what the challenges are,” Casso said.
Casso said the new salary recommendations take into account the role’s staff management responsibilities, policy decisions, meeting requirements, constituent demands and representing the city at the state and national level.
Their calculus took into account how council members are paid in Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Austin, Phoenix, San Jose, Philadelphia, San Diego and Corpus Christi.
San Diego, which has a much higher cost of living than San Antonio, pays its council members $238,479, tied to the salary of state superior court judges, a position that requires a law degree, according to the presentation.
“What this is saying is … there are all different types of examples when we look at the different types of cities and how they are compensated, how [their elected officials] are valued and how they are indexed,” Casso said.
The subcommittee also laid out preliminary recommendations for expanding council terms.
Their plan calls for two four-year terms for the council and mayor starting in 2025. Both the council and mayor currently are limited to serving four two-year terms.
“The first term, I spent six months just trying to find out where the restroom is,” said Courage, who is now in his fourth term and running for mayor in 2025. “[Two years] doesn’t give you enough time.”
The commission is still deciding how that would impact current council members. It’s also still considering whether to stagger the terms in the implementation.
This article has been updated to clarify that the two four-year terms for both the council and mayor recommended by the Charter Review Commission would start in 2025.
