There are over 250 commissioners and committee members in the city who help hammer out issues in the months and years before the City Council votes on them, but only a handful are paid for their service—something the council could change in the coming months.

According to a recent report from the city manager’s office, the city has 31 active advisory bodies that encompasses 260 members who deal with items ranging from noise issues at the Long Beach Airport to which buildings or locations are designated as historic.

Only about 70 of them are paid for their service.

Six of Long Beach’s commissions are mandated by the city charter (citizens police complaint commission, civil service, harbor, parks and recreation, planning, and water) with only the police complaint commissioners not being compensated for their duty. The others are paid $100 per meeting with a cap of monthly meetings set at five.

Nearly all of the non-charter commissions and committees are currently unpaid with those who are paid receiving $50 per meeting.

Two options that could be before the City Council in the coming months would double compensation for commissioners already being paid and establish a $50 per meeting stipend for other appointed committees.

Within the second option, commissioners serving the city’s airport advisory, economic development and Long Beach Transit bodies would be paid $75 per meeting.

“If we’re going to do something for one commission then we’re going to do it for all of them,” said Andrew Vialpando, an assistant to the city manager.

Depending on the body, some members can get meals provided during meetings, refreshments and in some cases city-issued laptops, but the bulk of the compensation, if any, comes in the form of the per-meeting stipend.

Vialpando said that based on the number of meetings held by all commissions and committees last year the change in compensation could result in a total payout of between $258,000 and $261,000 per year.

If each commission hit the maximum amount of meetings or pay allowed per year under each option, it could cost the city between $494,000 and $733,000 per year.

The city currently spends just over $80,000 per year on the stipends. Vialpando said there are one-time funds that could cover the increase during the current fiscal year, but if the City Council decides to go forward with a change future funding would have to be carved out in the next budget cycle, likely taking away from other city services.

Ultimately the City Council would have to approve a salary resolution to amend the compensation structure for commissioners, something that hasn’t happened in over 20 years, according to the city.

Councilwoman Stacy Mungo, who chairs the budget oversight committee, said that some commissions have struggled to maintain a quorum—the necessary amount of commissioners to conduct or continue a meeting—and others require long hours of preparation outside of the actual meeting time. Some don’t meet at all, like the 13-member Pedestrian and Safety Advisory Commission which currently has 12 vacancies.

While some meetings can last less than an hour, others like the city’s planning commission, which sometimes handles divisive development issues, and the city’s economic development commission, which waded through multiple hours-long meetings during the city’s minimum wage hike process, can last much longer.

“People say they want to do it but when they see the commitments for training and transparency they often change their minds,” Mungo said. “It’s really a second job for these people.”

Ron Antonette served as a parks and recreation commissioner for eight years and said that while that commission met only once a month, typically for a few hours, there were other departmental meetings that they attended to better understand the budget and operations of the parks department.

He said it wasn’t a “24/7” job but it usually added up to about 10 to 12 hours per month, for which he was paid $100. That money he would try to donate or invest in other ways in the city like paying for his kids’ sports fees but he added that compensating for all positions could have some impact.

“I don’t think it’s going to impact the charter commissioners at all. Those are positions that people aspire to because they have the most impact,” Antonette said. “It might have more of an impact on the commissions that struggle with attendance like the youth and family commission that might be trying to attract teenagers.”

A new addition to the city’s civil service commission, Brandon Dowling, started his first term in July. Dowling and the four other commissioners are kind of like the human resources board for the city handling issues related to how Long Beach hires employees, even serving as a pseudo-court when an employee facing discipline files an appeal.

He said he’s happy to volunteer his time and thinks that most commissioners feel similarly. They’re all like-minded in the sense that they want to be involved in the community and make the city better, he said.

Dowling said that financially compensating commissioners for their work could be a good thing but said that making them more visible, even potentially rescheduling some meetings to be more accessible to the public and commissioners, could also be helpful.

“So few people pay attention to the electeds in this city that the commissions are almost invisible,” Dowling said. “It’s kind of sad because the work entrusted to the commissioners is important and the decisions are made much closer to the community so you’re able to get better outcomes.”

Better outcomes, at least in terms of participation, could come with a better belief that something is being accomplished said Elliot Gonzales, a former sustainable city commissioner who recently ran for City Council. 
Gonzalez feels that the issue is less about money and more about commissioners believing their work isn’t making a difference.

Each commission’s agenda has to be approved by the city manager’s office, and in his experience, most of the agenda was filled with receive and file presentations with no opportunity to make recommendations to the City Council.

“What do we actually do?” Gonzales said. “No one should need compensation to attend a meeting where they’re giving advice, but they should feel empowered.”