SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif – Councilmember Heather Horgan’s son worked at Grocery Outlet making minimum wage in high school. She makes less than he did per hour as a city council member now.

City council will soon vote to give itself a standard 5% raise starting in late January, increasing yearly pay for its members from $16,734 per year to $18,449 per year. But with the amount of time members say they spend on council per week, most will still be making less than minimum wage.

Council members, when interviewed individually, estimated they spend anywhere from 10 to 40 hours per week on council-related activities. Three of the four interviewed for this story said they spend a minimum of 20 hours on council activities per week. Councilmember David Jinkins was not able to be reached for comment.

“The public only sees two meetings a month for the most part,” Councilmember Scott Robbins said. “There’s a humongous gap between what’s visible and what actually needs to happen.”

If a council member spends an average of 20 hours per week on council, their pay would currently equate to $16.09 per hour, 81 cents less than California’s $16.90 minimum wage. After the proposed 5% raise, that number would increase to $17.74 per hour. That barely outpaces California’s minimum wage increase to $17.40 on Jan. 1, 2027.

But the majority of council members said 20 hours is a light week for them. In the 25 to 40 hours per week range, that hourly figure plummets.

It looks more like $12.87 per hour for a council member who averages 25 hours per week and $10.73 per hour for one who averages 30 hours per week. With the proposed raise, those numbers would rise to $14.19 and $11.83 per hour, respectively. 

California law limits what council members can get paid in all non-charter cities based on population size. Cities are only allowed to raise their pay 5% for each calendar year since the last adjustment. 

As of a 2023 state law revision, in cities with a population of 35,000 or less, councils can’t set their pay above $950 per month. Previously, that cap was set at $300 in 1984. South Lake Tahoe already had a compensation greater than the $950 cap in 2023 based on the previous yearly adjustments. 

At the Oct. 6 meeting when the raise was first presented, the city clerk noted that each time she has brought the possibility of a 5% raise to council, no council has denied or decreased it.

At that meeting, Mayor Cody Bass, Mayor Pro Tem Keith Roberts and Councilmember Robbins said they will vote yes on the 5% raise when it comes to a vote, and Councilmembers Heather Horgan and David Jinkens said they will abstain. 

How many hours do council members spend per week? 

• Mayor Cody Bass estimated 25 to 40. (“We’ve had quite a few eight and 10 hour meetings. That’s just a meeting.”)
• Scott Robbins estimated 20 to 30. (“If you want to do this job of city council representation well, you’re looking at 20 to 30 hours a week. There is no legal requirement that one does this job well.”)
• Heather Horgan estimates 20 to 30. (“Scott Robbins in the meeting was pretty much spot on.”)
• Mayor Pro Tem Keith Roberts said it can sometimes be up to 20 hours (“It varies greatly.”)
• David Jinkins couldn’t be reached for comment.

Council members typically take positions on other boards, commissions or assignments that have monthly or quarterly meetings. Horgan said it can take up to eight hours to thoroughly review a lengthy agenda packet before a council meeting. 

Plus there’s the subcommittee meetings within those assignments. And all interviewed said they consistently make themselves available to constituents to hear their concerns.

How does South Lake Tahoe city council’s pay compare to other cities in California?

With state law in mind, South Lake Tahoe falls in the top 36th percentile of council pay in the state and the top 30th percentile for pay per constituent, based on 2025 data available on Government Compensation in California website. 

Bass said the city’s numbers being roughly in the top third creates “an interesting dynamic” in that South Lake Tahoe has never raised its compensation more than allowed by state law. He also said that the city is in a better financial state than many others of the same or even greater sizes, which has allowed them to continue implementing the 5% raise year over year.

Robbins said the pay per constituent number being in the 30th percentile is not “terribly remarkable,” especially because while the official population of the city is around 21,000, there is a much greater population (he estimated closer to 100,000 people) that uses the infrastructure and resources the city manages.

Compared with the 50 cities directly larger and 50 cities directly smaller in population — ranging from 12,712 to 30,687 people — South Lake Tahoe has the 16th highest pay of the 101 cities and also the 16th highest pay per constituent.

Of the 259 cities with populations under 35,000 who are under the same state regulations, South Lake Tahoe is in the 28th percentile for population size, 12th percentile for council pay and 28th percentile for pay per constituent.

Why increase pay?

Council members who support the raise say that failing to increase its pay at the maximum level will limit who is able to serve on council in the future. 

At the meeting, Mayor Bass was the biggest proponent of the raise, calling it a “disservice to future councils” to not increase their pay at the 5% rate. Bass is not running for reelection this year. He also noted that in his time on city council, there has never been a financial deficit and the city has had leftover, “undesignated” funds every year. 

“It’s kind of been known why it is only just all old people on these city councils, and minorities aren’t represented,” he said. “Different age demographics aren’t represented, and I think it can be pointed to that.”

Bass said state-level change is needed to allow city council members to earn livable wages and the low pay contributes to “a quality issue around the people that represent us.”

Both Robbins and Bass argue that without livable pay, the only people who will be able to run will be retired, independently wealthy or have vested financial interests in council decisions.

In some public comments, people have said the job should be a volunteer position. Robbins likened the difference to the four year commitment. Roberts said the job entails much more than volunteer work — namely making laws and bearing the brunt of public frustration.

“We get chastised, we get insulted, we get threatened because of the things we do, and it’s a lot different than just being a volunteer,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot more responsibility. There’s a lot more work, and there’s a lot more challenges that we face, and we face them hard.”

Heather Horgan and David Jinkins both said they will abstain from voting on the raise.

In an interview, Horgan said the way the agenda item was presented caught her off guard and said she felt the 5% figure came out of nowhere. In the meeting, she asked staff what is common practice and even brought up the idea of an inflation-based 3% increase instead.

“It just didn’t feel right,” Horgan said. “I didn’t really know how to vote for it. I didn’t want to vote no because it felt like I was voting against the next council, and there may be people on the council that legitimately need the income.”

In the meeting, Jinkins said money should not be the reason people run for public office, but he still hopes to encourage as many people as possible to run for public office. 

Do council members rely on the pay?

Not on the current council.

“But I couldn’t afford to quit my job and be on council at my current rate of pay,” Roberts said. “And as much as I enjoy being on council and enjoy doing great things for this community, I can’t quit my job and do more.”

Three of the five council members have day jobs. 

Horgan said she works around 30 hours per week as a nursing supervisor at Sutter with clustered 12-hour shifts. Roberts said he works “at least full time” as the chief operating officer for Tahoe Investment Capital & Stewardship, a company that supplies upper management to businesses. Bass said he works at least 40 hours per week managing his cannabis dispensary, Tahoe Wellness Center, and managing a commercial building he owns.

“My life has been a little overloaded the last few years, to say the least,” Bass said.

Robbins worked as an engineer with a defense industry think tank until he retired about a year ago. He said being on city council made his decision to retire easier since he knew he would still have plenty to do. David Jinkins is a retired city manager. 

All council members interviewed said they are privileged to have the flexibility to dedicate the time needed to city council work. 

Horgan, who was appointed to council after Former Mayor Tamara Wallace resigned, said she only found out the position was paid after she had started the appointment process. She said she then talked with her husband about if it was a legitimate option to donate the salary. 

The benefits caveat

Council members are eligible to receive health insurance from the city and can opt into a deferred compensation retirement plan. They do not receive pensions.

In 2025, the value of city council members’ benefits ranged from $1,113 to $26,804 depending on the council member, according to the Government Compensation California data. In a nonlinear fashion, the more the city paid into benefits, the less wages the councilmember received. 

For the same year, Transparent California data shows the value of those benefits ranging from $576 to $31,196, different for every council member based on their selections. 

Roberts said because health benefits and retirement are not money city council members see, he doesn’t find it fair to count that as compensation. Overall, he indicated that the issue has been taken out of proportion.

“I don’t care whether we get paid more or not,” Roberts said. “But also, the small amount that we’re suggesting is pretty small compared to the money that a lot of our city workers make.”

In the Tribune’s analysis, the Government Compensation California data was sorted using the compensation amount that appeared most frequently for each city, or, if there were no repeats, using the median compensation amount while accounting for extreme outliers. The data is based on council member pay, excluding mayoral pay unless they were the same amount like South Lake Tahoe.