Riviera Beach City Council members voted Wednesday to give themselves a $12,000 raise.
During their meeting as the board of the city’s Utility Special District, members voted 3-2 in favor of a $1,000 monthly stipend. They said it will compensate them for their work guiding Riviera Beach’s faltering water system while managing construction of a $400 million plant.
Council Vice Chairperson KaShamba Miller-Anderson and member Glen Spiritis voted no.
The item was added to Wednesday’s agenda at the start of the meeting and decided just before the board voted on the utility district’s $44 million operating budget.
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Council members earn $19,000 plus a $750 monthly car allowance that brings the annual total to $28,000. The mayor and council chairperson receive $20,200 plus the car allowance, according to the city charter.
Council Member Bruce Guyton, elected this year to his fourth term after several years on the sidelines, proposed the stipends. He noted the board received $1,000 monthly payments from 2015 to 2018, when he last served.
“Every year during the election cycle, I hear that the same people are running again,” Guyton said at Wednesday’s utility board meeting. “This is not about making money, but this is about (attracting) people who may have an opportunity to do other things to decide to come and give to their community.”
Miller-Anderson said she opposed the stipend when it was proposed in 2015 and she would not accept it now. She noted that the stipend bypasses voters, who have to approve changes to council members’ pay.
Chairperson Shirley Lanier said that in the past she agreed with Miller-Anderson, but that things have changed.
“The backup is at least 600 pages per meeting, and we have at least four or five meetings a month. We have special meetings, we have emergency meetings, we have groundbreakings that we have to get off from work to go to. We have a number of outside meetings. … There are a lot of things that if you want to do this job right, it is a long time,” Lanier said.
“There is a lot that is happening that has not happened ever in the history of the city. Not ever have we had over a billion dollars in development on the table. So I think that the people sitting here should be compensated for that, and I understand that that’s a hard sell.”
The original motion was to award board members a $1,500 monthly stipend, but Guyton reduced the amount to $1,000 after a request by Council Member Fercella Davis Panier.
Lanier and Mayor Douglas Lawson requested that the utility board meet on different days than council meetings to give members time to focus on the water projects.
“It is just that a lot of this information is very technical,” Lanier said. “And I would like to have the time to be able to talk about that publicly.”
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
