On Tuesday night, the Antioch City Council approved a salary increase for the first time in 14-years which will bump the pay of the next seated city council to $1,600.04 per month.
The move came with Mayor Sean Wright, Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts and Councilmembers Monica Wilson and Lamar Thorpe approving the move with Lori Ogorchock being the dissenting vote.
Ogorchcok explained she thought the money could be better spent elsewhere.
“I appreciate the fact that its been 13-years since this council has had a raise, but listening to the conversations tonight, from friends and the community, I am sitting here looking at my police chief and I would like to see us fully staffed passed the 115 (officers). I’d like to see us up to the numbers of 120, 125 officers for 115,000 people,” explained Ogorchock. “I’d also like since we listened to the presentation from the ad-hoc committee on the homeless, were thinking about all the unhoused and the funds there. I know its not a lot of money, but at this time, I just personally can’t pass something like this. I think the money could go someplace else.”
Currently, each council member makes $941.20 per month which has not seen an increase in pay since 2006.
By state law, the council can give themselves a 5% increase for each year since 2006 which came out to the $1,600.04. The council did have the option to take less, but opted for the maximum pay allowed under state law.
The item will come back at the September 10 council meeting for final adoption.
Here is a look at other local city council pay:
- $1,600 – City of Antioch (Proposed)
- $1,402 – City of Richmond
- $1,352 – City of Concord
- $939 – City of Brentwood
- $938 – City of San Ramon
- $650 – City of Walnut Creek
- $585 – City of Martinez
- $500 – City of Pittsburg
- $457 – City of Oakley
18 comments
Greed, pure and simple. It’s our tax money, should have been a vote by the taxpayers. I would have said hell no. The crime in this city is way to high for these people to reward themselves. They have done nothing to deserve it. I see no improvement in the state of our city to warrant such an increase. Outrageous.
I agree
So, each one of these morons (excluding Lori Ogorchok) will be getting $1600.04 per month? That’s over $8000+/month for the 5 of them (includes the mayor). They get that IF they are reelected in 2020 (which I doubt). I haven’t found anyone I spoke with who plans to vote for this bunch (excluding Lori– but they still feel a betrayal for that LGBT flag fiasco)!
$8,000+/month could easily pay for two police officers which we need more than we need a useless city council.
If these clowns had any sense of decency, they would have LOWERED their monthly pay to $700 and maybe even lower! But they are swine, so what can one do?
Unbelievable….Simply Unbelievable how these people think they should be rewarded for failing the citizens of this city. It’s obvious they only care about lining there pockets and not improving the city. Hopefully we can vote them all out next year. What a waste of taxpayers money.
Everyone deserves raises due to merit and inflation. No council since 2006 comes close to deserving a merit raise and doubt the inflation rate is 5% a year.
$1,600 – City of Antioch (Proposed)
$1,402 – City of Richmond
$1,352 – City of Concord
$939 – City of Brentwood
$938 – City of San Ramon
$650 – City of Walnut Creek
$585 – City of Martinez
$500 – City of Pittsburg
$457 – City of Oakley
RIDICULOUS!!
Take a drive around Brentwood and Pittsburg. You deserve more than those two beautiful thriving cities because WHY? Our city looks like a dump! My parents Joyce and Lee Seelinger, longtime Antioch teachers, residents, and very involved citizens (Civic Arts Council, Architectural Review Board, Board of Education, and Planning Commission) would be appalled. I know I am…
Not that I necessarily approve of the increase in pay for the council members, but … how many of the persons complaining here are willing to step up and run for City Council, and serve?
Voter, I doubt anyone wants to today. It’s simply demoralizing and futile! Because the city has gone so far down the tubes that the only thing which might possibly salvage it is if federal authorities are brought in and go block-by-block and physically remove the criminal element which has taken of this area. Another group can go into the heavily blighted area and write up and HEAVILY fine homeowners and/or landlords for letting their properties go to hell! Then ACLU will step in and hold the local authorities hostage!
I’d like to see a roster of past city council members who served at the time Antioch started to disintegrate and sue them for letting it happen and doing nothing! Put their feet to-the-fire! Call them out on-the-carpet wherever they could be found. I’m sure there are some still around unless they high-tailed it out of here or croaked! They failed this city miserably and got away with it.
Then bulldoze the blighted structures to the ground and also shut down all businesses which attract drug dealers and whores pandering. Reducing the population of this city is another way to start the process of reclamation.
What a joke! Amazing people can look you in the face and be so deceptive. This city has NEVER looked worst. Basics like Landscaping, code enforcement, etc are neglected. Shameful!
Reserve Police Officers put their lives on the line for free! Why do City Council people get paid???????
I think tomorrow I will waltz into my boss’s office and announce that I’m giving myself a 70% raise … and we will see what happens!
What TOTAL IDIOTS decided that THEY will be the ones voting themselves a raise? And it says this is LEGAL? By whose standards? Their own? This applies to the lowly city councils as well as state assemblymen, state senators, congressional and senators on the federal level!
Why the taxpayers have not rebelled against this practice is a beyond comprehension! We hold the purse strings and we are the ones who say who will get raises, when they will get it and by what percentages!
Now I see why so many people, those who pay the most in taxes, are leaving this state! Even a number of tech billionaires have moved away and taken what would be tax dollars with them. CALpers is seriously feeling the pinch and it will be feeling it even more!
I wouldn’t do a job for $1600 a month. If you have a family, that’s a wage hovering around the poverty level. Well, maybe some of you will run for City Council, and pledge to do it for free?
Nathan …………. the city council members also have regular jobs. What they get paid for being on the city council, is extra. So, don’t worry about their incomes!
I’d rather that money be earmarked to hire more police officers. The city council in this town should get what Oakley’s city council gets.
Hey! What happened to the postings from Arne and Abe and a few others?
I actually have little issue with the raise BUT put it to good use. I challenge these folks to use some of that money putting two tanks of gas into their cars and driving the neighborhoods of this town. Don’t stick to Hilcrest, Dolon and other thoroughs avoiding your constituents. Explore the ‘hoods’! See the mess that you and your predecessors have given us. Their’s and your legacies. The parched and ignored front yards, boarding houses (they’re not hard to spot), cars on blocks, houses in disrepair, piles of garbage. Also look at the housed residents who maintain their homes living next door to this. Put your heads on swivels and actually look into the shadows that tell the true story of this place. Check out your fellow travelers and their illegally tinted windows, loud exhast and music, paper dealer plates. Endure the frustrating nonstop barrage of red light runners, bike lane and turn lane passers. Scofflaws all of them. Why? Because this is Antioch and it’s oaky. Maybe before you take that drive you can install the See, Click, Fix ap, charge your phone and document your travels. Use our money to help us.
just vote them all out, every one of them,,,,
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