Bend mayor, councilors could get pay raise

An advisory committee recommended raising the pay for Bend’s mayor and city councilors at a council meeting Wednesday night. But voters will have a say in whether that can happen.

Currently, Bend’s mayor and the rest of the council are paid $200 a month, and that amount is set in the city charter, last updated some 20 years ago.

The committee recommended that the pay be increased to about $1,060 a month for the mayor and about $530 a month for councilors.

These numbers are calculated based on the area’s median income. To make the recommendation, the committee used data from other cities, advice from the former mayor and councilors, and the history of how such salaries were set in the past.

Nonetheless, the only way the pay raises would take effect is if residents vote to remove the $200 monthly council pay from the city charter.

This pay raise would only apply to those elected starting in 2018 and going forward, not the current council. Councilors made that decision a few months ago, and set a process to come up with a new proposed salary for voters to review when they decide on the charter changes in the May 15 primary.

The other proposed city charter change would move Bend from a mayor chosen by councilors among their colleagues and make it a directly voter-elected position instead.

‘To what extent are we getting not only the best people on council but are we getting a more representative group of councilors?” said councilor Bruce Abernethy. “One of the (thoughts) was, if we could perhaps raise the compensation a little bit — you don’t want this to be a person’s full time job, but that might make the difference in getting more people, perhaps a more diverse population, to choose to run.”

The committee also recommended the ordinance be adjusted every two years in January after councilors take office, and to reappoint another advisory committee every five years to re-evaluate the compensation.

No final decisions were made Wednesday night, but councilors did tell the committee to continue its work.

The council also discussed during its work session the minimum development standard with sidewalks for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs — basically a living-space add-on to a home’s property, such as a room above a garage or a guest house..

Currently, if a home is within 600 feet of a street with a sidewalk and someone wants to add an ADU, they have to build a sidewalk in front of their property, if it’s not already there.

But the council decided to have city staff draft new language that would exempt ADUs from that rule.

Any single-family home, single-family attached townhouse or duplex that is larger than an ADU still would have to build a sidewalk, if within 600 feet of an existing sidewalk, as the city moves to provide more pedestrian-friendly roadways. City staff will bring back new language for councilors to review at their next meeting on March 21.