Council’s Sixfold Pay Raise to Be Rescinded

The sixfold pay increase--from $500 to $2,950 monthly--that members of the Pasadena City Council voted themselves last week apparently will be rescinded today, one councilman said.

Councilman William Paparian said Mayor Jess Hughston told him Monday that obscene and threatening calls to Hughston’s home had made him decide to vote against an ordinance that would formalize the pay raises. Hughston could not be reached. Both Hughston and Paparian were in the 4-3 majority that approved the raises last week.

Instead, Hughston now wants a panel to study raising council salaries, Paparian said. “I’m disappointed,” Paparian said. “I thought we were doing the right thing.” Council members Rick Cole and Isaac Richard also voted for the council raise, the first in 23 years. Council members Chris Holden, Kathryn Nack and William Thomson opposed it.