Earlier this week Chula Vista mayoral candidate Hector Gastelum posted a tweet bringing attention to, among other things, salaries — specifically the paycheck he would be entitled to if he is elected mayor.
“Hello friends, here’s the #ChulaVistaMayor Forum
#ChulaVista #ThisIsChula #MakeChulaVistaBusinessFriendly
How is it possible the Chula Vista mayor makes more money than the #SanDiego mayor?”
In addition to his post being an apparent homage to the Trumpian style of convoluted social media communication, Gastelum’s tweet was presumably a rhetorical question intended to appeal to voters and get them thinking: Why does the mayor of Chula Vista, the leader of the second largest city in the county, get paid $124,000 a year?
A few years ago, after the Chula Vista City Council voted to approve raises for themselves I marvelled at the way the increases come about.
“Fifteen years ago Chula Vista voters decided to link the mayor’s salary to that of superior court judges, and that of a City Council member would be attached to that of the mayor, forming a nice little money train,” I wrote in 2015. “By making council salary increases automatic and tied to a percentage of an impartial party, the idea was to keep the council from giving themselves fat increases that they may not have deserved.”
In other words, in the hope of keeping electeds square and honest it’s the system that voters in this city chose, for better or worse. I’ll say again now what I said then — nice gig if you can get it.
Gastelum, an Otay Water District board member, included a link to a video replaying a candidates forum earlier this month.
During the meeting he and Mayor Mary Casillas Salas were asked if they would consider having the Charter Review Commission look at the way mayor and council are paid.
Salas said she would.
Gastelum, after noting the city was in a deficit and may be for years to come, said there would not be a pay increase as long as he was mayor. He did not specify if that proposal included city staff.
But the city’s charter makes raises for council and mayor mandatory. Unless Gastelum wants to violate the charter he would have no choice but to accept a bump in pay. Poor guy.
Of course Gastelum could have the Charter Review Commission look at the issue and recommend another course of action but he did not say he would. He may have every intention of asking for a review but he did not say he would. And frankly I’d be surprised if the guy who was rebuked by water district colleagues for claiming expenses he was not entitled to, at the expense of the taxpayers he currently serves, made much of a fuss after getting that first nice fat check as mayor. Priorities tend to shift when one is paid well.
