The Measure authorizes the City Council to set the compensation of the City Attorney. In addition, the Measure specifies a formula to determine the minimum compensation that may be paid to the City Attorney. To implement this formula, the City Council shall, as of February of each year, use the most current annual population estimates published by the California Department of Finance to determine the six California cities whose populations are closest to the City, as specified in the Measure. In the event that the city attorney of any comparable city is not an employee of that city, the compensation for such city attorney shall not be used as a comparison and the city with the next higher and/or next lower population, as applicable, shall be used in the comparison.

As of March of each year, the City, through the City Manager or designee of the City Manager, shall, for each comparable city as identified above, obtain a copy of the employment contract for the city attorney and/or other documentation necessary to demonstrate the city attorney’s compensation. This data shall be used to calculate the minimum compensation of the City Attorney. The minimum compensation as calculated by the City Manager or designee of the City Manager shall be made available to the public within a reasonable time after the calculation is approved by the City Manager but not later than May of each year.

For purposes of this section, the “compensation” of the city attorneys of the comparable cities shall mean the base salaries of the city attorneys as set forth in their respective employment contracts. (Ord. 3147 § 1, 2009).