LIHU‘E — A resolution set to go before County Council Wednesday would increase the maximum salaries of the mayor, department leadership, and council members by 15%.
This creates a situation in which some councilmembers may be making a call on their own paychecks.
Though Council Chair Arryl Kaneshiro, and Council Vice Chair Mason Chock are terming out this year, most sitting councilmembers appear poised to retain their seats. Councilmembers Luke Evslin, Bernard Carvalho and KipuKai Kuali‘i placed in the top four of primary voting, while council members Felicia Cowden and Billy DeCosta finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Kaua‘i council members currently make $67,956 and would make $78,672 in 2024 if the resolution passed. (The council chair makes $76,452 and would make $88,502.)
These salaries are the lowest in the state for council members — Maui’s council makes $76,475, with $82,225 for the chair, the Hawai‘i Island council makes $70,008 ($77,016 for the chair), and the Honolulu councils make $68,904 ($76,928 for the chair).
If the raises are approved, and if other counties do not implement similar increases, Kaua‘i would become the highest paid council statewide. Most councilmembers currently supplement their salaries with secondary income.
At the Wednesday meeting, the council will have the option to either accept the resolution, reject it completely, or reject it in part and offer a modification.
When a similar resolution came before the council in 2019, the council voted down their own raises while agreeing to increases for the mayor and department leadership.
Councilmember Billy DeCosta said Friday he did not support a wage increase for council members, but he did support raising salaries for county employees.
“You know how difficult it is to get qualified people and compete with the private sector when our pay scales are behind,” said DeCosta.
Salary Inversions
The resolution was approved by the mayor-appointed Salary Commission in a 5-0 vote this July, which laid out a rationale for the proposed raises in a memo to the council.
The memo notes similar raises from collective bargaining units, rising costs of living and the concept of “salary inversion,” in which department heads are sometimes paid less than high ranking subordinates.
While the department heads are generally among the highest paid county employees, their salaries are sometimes outpaced by subordinates because, despite being on call 24/7, they are not eligible for overtime pay and are subject to sporadic wage increases rather than regular raises.
In one example included in the Salary Commission memo, a Kaua‘i Police sergeant took home more than $60,000 in overtime pay last year, boosting their salary above Police Chief Todd Raybuck’s by nearly $40,000.
This can make it more difficult to recruit for leadership roles internally.
“The leadership positions of all departments largely earn less than the third in line of management and others,” said Cowden. “This pattern almost forces the county to recruit outside of the experienced team to hire directors.”
Cowden said that with if the raises went into effect, salary inversion would remain nearly the same because of comparable raises in the union contracts, but would not get more extreme.
She gave support for raises to leadership, noting that, unlike the majority of county staff, these positions are “unprotected by a union,” but said that she did not need a raise personally.
The raises would be enacted in three 5% increments — in January 2023, July 2023, and July 2024.
The maximum salaries are not necessarily the salaries officials receive. The respective appointing authority may set the salary of appointees lower than the maximum — and elected officers may voluntarily accept a salary lower than the maximum or forego a salary entirely.
Mayor Derek Kawakami’s salary would increase from $142,062 to $164,454 in July 2024.
He is currently the state’s lowest paid mayor, trailing behind Honolulu’s Rick Blangiardi ($186,432), the Hawai‘i Island’s Mitchell Roth ($162,582) and Maui County’s Michael Victorino ($159,578). The raise would push him ahead of both Roth and Victorino.
Raybuck and recently appointed Fire Chief Michael Gibson’s respective salaries will both be upped from $137,022 to $158,640.
Other positions up for raises include Managing Director Michael Dahilig, leadership in the Finance Department, Human Resources, Planning, Economic Development, Liquor Control, Parks & Recreation, Housing/Human Concerns and Boards and Commissions, Department of Water, and the Office of the County Clerk and top county attorneys and engineers.
County council will convene at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the County Building on 4396 Rice Street.
