Pasadena : Salary Evaluation Delayed

Still hurting from a bruising battle over salary raises, the City Council chose Tuesday to postpone consideration of a citizen committee to evaluate salaries until, as one civic leader put it, there has been “some simmering down.”

The council sparked a citizen backlash last month by voting its members a $2,900-a-month raise, then reversing the decision a week later. On Tuesday, council members considered establishing a citizens’ panel to compare Pasadena salaries with those of comparable cities before rejecting the idea.

“This is not the time to launch into this issue,” Councilman William Thomson said. Former Chamber of Commerce President Ann Hight, one of five civic leaders who had offered last month to form the citizen panel, concurred that the timing is wrong to resurrect the issue and suggested that the council “wait until a time when there’s a little more light than heat.”

The council will consider a ballot initiative dealing with council salaries in October.