Eureka advances charter amendment on mayor, council pay setting
Eureka is moving a charter change that could shift mayor and council pay from the city charter to ordinance, giving voters the final word in November.
Eureka is putting a check on its own pay-setting rules, opening the door for voters to decide whether future mayor and City Council salaries should be written into ordinance instead of locked in the city charter.
The City of Eureka’s April 28 notice said the council will hold a second public hearing on the proposed charter amendment, a step required by California Government Code Section 34458 before any charter proposal can go to the ballot. The law requires at least two public hearings, spaced at least 30 days apart, and one of them must be held outside normal business hours. After that hearing, the council may decide whether to send the measure to the November 3, 2026 General election.
The change would not automatically raise pay. Instead, it would move salary-setting power into the ordinary ordinance process, allowing future councils to adjust compensation without reopening the city charter each time. A draft ordinance attached to the agenda packet would create new code sections covering council salary, mayor salary and future salary increases if voters approve the amendment. Under the current charter, each council member receives $500 a month and the mayor receives $625, figures that local reporting says were last ratified in June 1988.
That distinction matters in a council-manager charter city like Eureka, where the charter functions as the city’s governing document and sets the offices of mayor, council, city manager, city attorney and city clerk. Municipal code, by contrast, is where day-to-day ordinances live. Moving elected-official pay into ordinance would make it easier to update, but it would also leave future salary changes more exposed to council action than a charter provision would.
The question has taken on added weight because Eureka’s current stipend levels have been frozen for decades, even as the cost of living has moved far beyond 1988. City materials and April 7 study-session discussion pointed to the same basic issue: whether Eureka should modernize a compensation structure that may make it harder for residents without private wealth or outside income to serve. The council’s next move will determine whether the city sends that question to the voters or keeps it inside City Hall at 531 K Street.
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