Cha-ching!
A group of city council members in a coastal California enclave mistakenly got 500% pay raises — with no one saying a peep about the expensive snafu until it was revealed a year later.
The Seaside City Council in Monterey County saw their monthly pay jump from $400 to a jaw-dropping $2,400 in June 2025, due to an apparent bungling of state law meant to adjust their pay for inflation.
The newly flush five-member council continued to collect until an eagle-eyed citizen flagged the issue, KSBW reported.
“A member of the public wrote an email to our staff and said, ‘Hey, you should look at this, this wage issue,’” Councilmember Alex Miller told the outlet.
He said the council is “extremely furious” as it reviews a proposal that would force them to repay an estimated $26,000 each in overcompensation.
The apparently oblivious council pointed the finger the Seaside city attorney for the screw-up, with Miller claiming the lawyer “assured us it was legal,” he told the Monterey Herald.
“This is a case of the city attorney not researching the law,” he said.
The mistake allgedly occurred when the city attorney misunderstood compound interest in a clause within state law meant to allow city council compensation to keep pace with inflation.
The law allows for compensation to increase by “an amount equal to 5 percent for each calendar year from the operative date of the last” pay bump, according to the state.
The city council’s most recent raise came in 1986, meaning members were set to get a large raise anyway. But instead of adding 5% for each year, the salary number was recalculated for the 5% bump with each year for compounding gains — leading to increase 310% higher than intended.
“I am really trying to understand the amount that we got to because it wasn’t supposed to be $2,400, it was supposed to be $1,100,” Councilmember Alexis Garcia-Arrazoa told KSBW.
He has pledged to repay the amount owed to set a good example.
“We have to pay back, which I have all intentions to do,” Garcia-Arrazoa said. “I think it’s the right thing to do, the moral thing to do and to be the example to the community that, you know, even though these things happen, there is accountability and transparency.”
The councilmember also suggested that the body was misled in the pay raise process.
“What I want to highlight is that we were guided through a process that led us to believe the amount (of the raise) was appropriate,” Garcia-Arrazoa said.
“I don’t want this to take away from the progress we have been making.”
