We have all been negatively impacted severely by the Biden recession and Biden inflation and the 7% means they are still losing because of the policies of the last three years. But, there is no one giving teachers an immediate 7% raise and others.

Before they receive this raise I want to hear from them about utilities pricing and since they are pushing the electric narrative, that pricing for electricity will decrease and stay there for a decade plus. I understand the physics behind the poor California power grid but this is personal and one we go electric, it is difficult to change to cheaper and more effective energy sources.

Because they've done such a stellar job with the single most important piece of work on their desks, the housing element? Or because "tis the season" and they just announced that the coffers are healthier than we were told they were (or even could be) when they wanted us to pass both the business tax and the utility transfer? These two raises should not even be considered until Palo Alto has a compliant Housing Element.

Sometimes people ask me what it is like to live in Palo Alto. My answer is that it is great IF you don't pay attention. If you do, this place sometimes feels like a Grimm's Fairy Tale.

Great! The pensions the City cannot afford just got higher!

Fully agree with Annette.

This isn't SF, NYC or any other large city with major problems.
Their salaries , as do many others on the city payroll, seem too high already.

In my world, raises were based on actually accomplishing specific goals. So what goals have these guys met? Annette's comment about Palo Alto being great if one doesn't pay attention is right on. Police and fire departments struggle to maintain adequate head counts (it's clear the police are spread too thin so that they cannot respond to anything but the most serious events). Our streets are generally in poor shape. Unlike similar communities our business districts have numerous empty store fronts, (Los Altos, Los Gatos, even Menlo Park seem to have thriving "downtowns"). We do not have a housing plan and so are subject to the builder's remedy. So, I ask again, why do they deserve a raise?

Echoing Annette's comments and all those agreeing with her.

And shame on the City Council for not demanding more accountability from "our leaders" before giving them yet another raise which will inflate our unfunded pension liabilities even more.

But hey, not problem. They'll can just keep raising utility rates -- which was reported to have generated a $100,000,000 surplus* -- while paying an outside law firm to keep appealing the court-ordered payments to US in the long-ago Miriam Green lawsuit against CPAU illegally inflating rates to feed the General Fund which awards more raises to highly paid city staffers and their gravy train of consultants who have little or no local knowledge.

* Note the city never calls its excess funds a "surplus" in its budget filings making them even tougher to search.

Mr. Shikada makes over $550,000 salary plus an extremely generous benefits package most workers today do not enjoy. Council should evaluate whether his performance this year merits a compensation increase from this generous level and what the what does the market looks like for people in his line of work.