Cash Strapped San Francisco Gives Top Leaders Pay Raises

San Francisco may be $306 million in the hole, but the city is still moving forward with raises to its top employees, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

The Civil Service Commission has decided to increase the pay for city and county elected officials in the 2011- 2012 fiscal year. A voter-approved charter amendment gives the commission the power to determine employee pay.

The Mayor will see the largest raise, an almost $5,000 increase. The 11 members of the Board of Supervisors will each receive a nearly $2,000 pay raise. The City Attorney, District Attorney, Public Defender and Sheriff will get about $4,000 more a year. While the Assessor-Recorder and Treasurer will get about $3,000 more.

The raises come at a time when the city is asking unions to cut pay to help balance the budget, but that does not bother some union members. Tom O'Connor, the president of the San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798, told the Examiner, "I think the guys and gals are underpaid for what they do. It's a hard job."

The commission decides how much of a raise to give using a complicated formula that takes into account inflation. A provision in the charter requires the commission to adjust salaries if there are any pay concessions made by city employees. There were concessions this year. If there are no labor concessions at the end of the next fiscal year, the salaries of elected officials will return to pre-concession levels.

The new salaries are below the levels of 2009. That is when labor concessions triggered salary reductions.

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