VIRGINIA BEACH — A pay increase for members of Virginia Beach City Council is temporarily off the table. The council unanimously agreed to defer a vote on the matter Tuesday night and instructed a city process improvement committee to research the issue further.
Council members had faced a slew of criticism from constituents for considering a raise. At a public hearing last week, several residents said they thought it was unnecessary and the timing was off with some taxpayers feel financially strapped. The salary increase would have gone into effect July 1, 2027.
The current annual salaries of the Virginia Beach mayor and council members are $30,000 and $28,000, respectively. The salary increases, if they had been approved, would have raised annual pay to $51,998 for the mayor and $48,531 for council members, which would have accounted for inflation since raises were last provided in 2006 and were consistent with cost of living increases provided to the city’s workforce.
Before heading into Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman David Hutcheson, who galvanized a vote on the pay increase, told his colleagues he was backing off on the idea, at least for now. He requested a review from the city’s Process Improvement Steering Committee, which serves in an advisory capacity to council and has reviewed affordable housing and stormwater issues.
Hutcheson defended his reasoning for originally bringing the vote on council raises forward, which he said stemmed from hearing feedback from people interested in running for office. Hutcheson thought higher pay would widen the pool of candidates, he said.
“We’ve had council members that tried to sustain being on here and doing a regular full-time job and couldn’t do it,” said Hutcheson at Tuesday’s afternoon meeting. “That was one of the reasons to ask for a sustainable amount.”
The General Assembly passed legislation in 2024 amending the maximum amounts that Virginia mayors and council members can earn. It creates new salary caps based on population, and nearly doubles the maximum local elected officials can earn if cities vote to increase pay.
Other Hampton Roads city councils have approved pay raises at the statutory limit for themselves including Portsmouth, Newport News and Hampton.
Councilwoman Jennifer Rouse said she would like the committee to compare the council’s current pay with other cities of the same size across the country, not just in Hampton Roads.
“I do hope we continue talking about this,” Rouse said. “For the amount of work that we do, what is a fair amount for that?”
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
