City attorney may get $9,000 pay increase

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- City Atty. Bob Burnham will get a $9,000-a-year raise

if the City Council, as expected, gives its approval.

A committee headed by Councilman Dennis O’Neil has recommended

Burnham’s current salary of $156,000 be increased to $165,000. Burnham’s

compensation package, unlike some other upper-level city staff, does not

include a car allowance.

For its nonunion employees, the city does not have a policy that sets

incremental amounts for raises. Instead, for the three city staffers who

answer directly to the council, council members negotiate and recommend

raises on a case-by-case basis, often comparing salaries in other Orange

County cities. In addition to Burnham, this applies to City Manager Homer

Bludau and City Clerk LaVonne Harkless.

To help make their decision, the committee studied salaries of city

attorneys from Orange, Santa Ana, Anaheim and Costa Mesa; $165,000, they

decided was a competitive and fair salary.

The committee’s report cited some of Burnham’s recent accomplishments

as reason for the raise.

Burnham played a major role in working to get Newport Coast annexed to

the city. He has also been a leader in getting an extension of the John

Wayne settlement agreement and helped create the city’s Harbor Element,

the Greenlight implementation policy and an agreement for the Newport

Theatre Arts Center.

Burnham joined the city in 1980 as assistant city attorney and was

promoted to his current post in 1983.