Irvine councilmembers indefinitely postponed a vote on whether to up their base salaries from $880 a month to $3,308, which at $39,696 a year for each of the seven members would make it the highest-paid city council in Orange County.

City Manager Oliver Chi said city staff recommended postponing the matter after conversations with multiple councilmembers and because Councilmember Mike Carroll was absent from Tuesday’s council meeting.

Chi said on Thursday morning that he’s unsure if the item will come back to the council for consideration.

Irvine councilmembers have not received a bump in base salary since 2009. If approved, they would receive the maximum allowable salary under California law for cities with more than 250,000 in population where voters have not permitted higher compensation. 

The councilmembers would also have the option to receive a lesser salary, or no amount of compensation whatsoever, and contribute the difference to their community partnership grant funds for distribution to qualifying nonprofits. 

If a raise were adopted, changes in pay would take effect after a new member is seated in mid-April following a special election in District 5 to fill the remainder of the term vacated by Larry Agran when he was elected mayor in November.  

Serving on the council, while time-intensive, is intended to be part-time work, and most members hold other jobs.

Councilmembers also receive an $8,580 annual auto allowance, a small pension and insurance premiums — although some councilmembers opt out of city-sponsored insurance. There also is a meeting stipend for some of the boards on which they represent the city.

Most notably, councilmembers receive a stipend of $880 a month to serve as the Great Park Board of Directors — a body comprised of only city councilmembers that some people have described as redundant and confusing, but that is kept separate from the council for legal reasons, City Attorney Jeffrey Melching recently explained. 

Currently, this stipend essentially doubles the councilmembers’ base salaries. 

Chi said that if the council upped their salaries, their action could facilitate an adjustment to their Great Park Board salaries.

“But that wouldn’t happen unless they took additional action,” he said.

Bylaws for the Great Park Board state that the directors determine their salaries by resolution.