Photo by bradtothebone.

Today, the D.C. Council took another step towards clarifying how much senior officials in the District’s government can get paid. During a council session this morning, Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) discussed legislation that would limit D.C. agency heads to a $179,096 yearly salary.

In March, Mayor Vince Gray requested that the city’s pay scale for senior officials in the Executive Service (that is, positions which require D.C. Council approval) be adjusted so that the highest-earners could take in as much as $279,000. Gray justified the pay hike as a means to attract top talent to the city. A July council committee report rejected that idea, while an August council report found that 14 mayoral appointees received salaries that exceeded legal limits by a few thousand dollars.

Cheh’s proposal, which will be considered by the full Council on November 1, would set $179,096 as the highest salary a D.C. official could take home.

Regardless, four city officials are being exempted, despite the fact that their salaries are tens of thousands of dollars above legal limits. According to Cheh’s legislation, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, D.C. Fire/EMS Chief Kenneth Ellerbe, D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson and Chief Medical Examiner Marie Pierre-Louis will be able to keep their current salaries. Lanier now makes $253,817, Ellerbe takes in $187,302, Pierre-Louis earns $185,000 and Henderson banks $275,000 a year. (All but Ellerbe had their salaries set by previous mayor Adrian Fenty.)

Those salaries, though, can’t go up any further and won’t carry over to any future office-holders — whomever takes over for Lanier, for example, will take a pretty big pay cut, at least relatively speaking.

During today’s session, Cheh also floated the idea of putting employment agreements reached by the mayor and agency heads online for the public to see. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) expressed skepticism at the idea, saying that it may put the city at a competitive disadvantage when trying to lure in talent from outside. Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) then questioned whether the mayor should even be able to negotiate agreements with incoming agency heads that grant them specific perks.