EDITORIAL:

Huntington Beach City Council members say it’s a coincidence that they recently gave a pay bump to the city’s attorney while she seeks the shelter of bankruptcy.

That might be, but the timing sure raises eyebrows. You can’t blame voters for greeting the news with cynicism given the city’s unfortunate recent history with political corruption. The council members, especially since there’s an election this year, are taking a risk, but we’re not sure it’s that dangerous. After all, nearly 10 months after she pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, voters gave her the job right back. Sure she had no competition, but if the DUI had offended the city enough someone probably could have been coaxed to run against her.

At any rate, the council saw fit to give her a whopping 11.3% pay hike, bringing her annual salary to $208,520. Hard to believe anyone making that kind of scratch has to cry poor mouth to the government and it must even strain credulity more given the state of the economy. With economists batting around the “R” word (that’s recession, folks. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you) these days as freely as you and I would say “hello,” you’d think it would be hard to find that much extra cash in the budget. But then the government doesn’t exactly balance its check book like we do.

Councilman Keith Bohr said McGrath’s gig is a “24-7 job” and that “she’s on call all the time on a lot of sticky issues.”

Bohr also was pleased that McGrath has met more with council members to keep them more informed about legal issues facing the city. That’s nice, but does it warrant an 11.3% raise during these troubled times when city officials ought to be keeping a close eye on the rainy day fund?

One other minor note. Perhaps our cynicism might have been alleviated somewhat if McGrath had returned our messages for comment on the pay increase. That’s not much to ask, but we suppose she didn’t need to. After all, Bohr did most of the talking for her.