The Colton City Council on Tuesday, November 18 voted to increase the $440 per month stipend they currently receive to $1,600.
That action was taken in the form of passing an ordinance, designated as Ordinance No. O-11-25, on a 3-to-2 vote, with council members Kelly Chastain, David Toro and John Echevarria is support and Mayor Frank and Councilman Luis González dissenting.
For the raise to be fully ratified, the council must confirm the vote it took Tuesday night at a future meeting. In Colton, as in other cities in California, a proposed ordinance is formally presented to the community as a meeting of the city council in what is referred to as a “reading.” Such readings constitute a procedural step in the legislative process, where the language of the ordinance being considered is either read or presented in a form that can be read by the citizenry to be subject to the ordinance, thus ensuring public notice. In the course of the “reading,” the legislative body, in this case the city council, is given the opportunity to discuss, amend and then vote on the ordinance.
The public then has the opportunity to weigh in further on the proposed ordinance at its second reading. In this case, that second reading is likely to take place at the city council’s upcoming December 2 meeting.
Colton, which is San Bernardino County’s second oldest municipality, its fifth smallest or 20th largest geographically and 15th largest or tenth smallest population-wise, fell on hard financial times even before the turn of the Third Millennium and then was hit hard by the economic downturn of the of 2007, which later became known as the Great Recession. By 2010, the city was insolvent, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and was forced to make crash layoffs of over 100 city employees and shut down multiple civic services, extending to closing the city library. That year, Chastain, who was then mayor, was voted out of office.
There followed a series of financial reforms put in place by the administration of Chastain’s successor, David Zamora. These included drastic pay cuts to city staff, which were replicated by the mayor and city council consistently electing to forego raises themselves. This fiscal discipline together with other economies allowed Colton to avoid being disincorporated as municipality and brought under the administration of the county, which was once contemplated as the solution to its financial challenges and systemic deficit spending.
In 2022, after two previous failed efforts at a political comeback over the previous 12 years, Chastain was elected to the city council to represent the city’s newly drafted Second District, which corresponded with the city council reducing itself from a mayor elected at large and six council members representing six districts to a mayor elected at large and four council members representing four districts.
Almost immediately upon regaining office, Chastain began agitating for giving herself, the other council members and the mayor a raise. Her intention in this regard was for the council to consider doubling the mayor’s and its members pay. Ultimately, however, in 2023, Mayor Frank Navarro and the other council members considered that request to be too grandiose. Instead, they agreed to make modest adjustments in the council’s/mayor’s the monthly salary from $400 to $440 and in the automobile allowance from $220 to $242, which went into effect in December 2024.
This year, Chastain reiterated her earlier complaint that she, her council colleagues and the mayor are underpaid.
Chastain said that the $682 per month the council received meant she and the other four entrusted with guiding the city were being remunerated at a rate below the State of California’s $16.90 per hour minimum wage which is set to go into effect in California in 2026. She calculated each council member was being paid $5.35 per hour base on the premise they were devoting 30 hours a week to the city or $8 per hour assuming a 20-hours workweek.
She went so far as to suggest that being a council member or the mayor was a full-time job, and that at 40 hours per week, the mayor and council members were being paid $14 dollars a day, which broke down to $1.83 an hour for 8 hours. She said the council deserved a raise.
Others, including Navarro, González and some city residents disputed that serving on the council was anything resembling full-time work in that the council duties consisted of attending two meetings or two-to-four hours duration per month, along with a handful of ceremonial groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings. Navarro and González said that Chastain missed the point with regard to the spirit of public service, and that the honor of being an elected official entrusted with safeguarding the public interest was ample reward for them and should be for Chastain and the other members of the council. Chastain countered that city staff cataloged the mayor and council as “part-time, although we do a lot more than just part-time work.” The she said. She characterized the $440 stipend and the $242 automobile allowance as “insufficient” and that the council was “40 years” behind on a realistic pay scale. alk about this.”
Chastain said the council needed to “bring ourselves up to a fair market” figure when it came to pay, while noting the council had voted to raise the salaries of city employees by 10 percent earlier this year.
She said the city council was conscientious about looking after the needs of residents and city employees but was neglecting itself.
“It seems like we’re always the last,” she said. “I don’t want to make it like we’re making oodles of dollars but also I see we need to bring ourselves up to parity or at least a fair stance.” Moreover, she said with regard to the raise she was advocating, “I’m not looking at it for myself,” insisting that her proposal was intended to benefit thers who might be contemplating getting into politics, beginning with a run for the Colton City Council.
“There’s a lack of people wanting to get into office, especially on the local level,” she said. “I know it’s supposed to be volunteer [service] or that’s what it was deemed a long time ago, but when you have a family and in today’s wage [scale] at Del Taco you can get about $20 an hour. I’m looking for, in the future, those individuals that would hopefully come [forward to run for office. I want to] entice people to get on-board, the younger generation. I hope we can say that we don’t have to be, in my eyes, ashamed for coming forward and at least showing a fair wage, especially for those that might be looking at public office in the future, wanting to get into public office. You aren’t seeing many young folks getting involved.”
In response to suggestions that the council conferring a 400 percent salary increase upon itself was somewhat excessive, Chastain said, “Our base is a lot lower [than the salary level of the city employees who earlier this year were given a 10 percent increase].”
She said that those members of the council who felt accepting a raise was improper could simply choose to not accept it.
Chastain was able to convince councilmen Echevarria and Toro to go along with her.
Ordinance No. O-11-25 increases mayor’s and council member’s compensation from $682 per month to $1,600 per month all inclusive. The ordinance eliminates the current auto allowance of $242 monthly and increases the salary from $440 monthly to $1,600 monthly or $19,200 annually, entailing an annual increase in salary of $11,016 per elected official.
The ordinance amends Colton Municipal Code Sections 2.12.030, relating to city council members, and 2.12.050, pertaining to the mayor, to increase total monthly compensation to $1,600 per elected official, as a single salary amount, eliminating the separate automobile allowance. The amendment to Section 2.12.030 includes a reference to Section 2.12.050 to clarify that the mayor’s compensation is addressed separately, acknowledging that a directly elected mayor may receive different or additional compensation under state law if the council chooses to provide it in the future. At present, Navarro receives the same level of compensation as each council member.
Based on California Government Code Section 36516.5, which prohibits a city council from conferring upon itself an immediate raise, the ordinance will go into effect following the November 3, 2026 election, when the mayor and councilmen González and Echevarria are up for election.
The stipend increase from $440 to $1,600 per month constitutes a 364 percent increase or, if the elimination of the automatic car allowance is taken into consideration, a 235 percent increase in total compensation. If council members choose to do so, they will be able, after the ordinance goes into effect, apply for actual vehicle cost reimbursement beyond the $1,600 per month by providing documentation of those expenses, including receipts for fuel and any actual and necessary vehicle expenses pursuant to Government Code Section 36514.5, which excludes such actual vehicle expenses from the compensation cap.
The ordinance does not effect health, welfare, retirement benefits, and federal social security (per Section 36516(d)), which council members also receive. Those benefits are not included in the $1,600 calculation.
City council compensations in California are governed by California Government Code Section 36516, which allows a city council to establish by ordinance a salary up to a ceiling determined by the city’s population, which is based upon the last preceding federal census or a subsequent estimate validated by the Department of Finance. For cities with populations over 50,000 up to and including 75,000, the maximum salary is $1,600 per month. According to Colton City Manager William Smith, Colton’s estimated 2025 population is 52,945.
By Tuesday night’s action, the city council claimed, effective late next year, the maximum salary possible.
The raise the council conferred upon itself makes its five members the second-most financially burdensome set of municipal officials in San Bernardino County when the cost of their remuneration is considered from the standpoint of the per capita cost borne by city residents.
The raise, when it goes into effect, will transform the Colton City Council into the highest paid city council among the cities in San Bernardino County in the 50,000-to-75,000-population range.