The Housing Authority of the city of San Diego Tuesday approved a pay bump for the San Diego Housing Commission's president and CEO, even as the agency cut a popular housing voucher program earlier this year and could face more cuts in the near future.
Lisa Jones, the Housing Commission's head, was appointed president and CEO in late 2023. The San Diego City Council, acting as the Housing Authority, voted 6-2 to increase her salary by 5% — to $372,500 — plus $5,000 to "right-size the compensation comparable to others in similar positions," for the period of one year.
Referring to a 2022 table of financial compensation for housing authority and commission CEOs for other large cities or regional governments, Councilman Kent Lee noted Jones fell near the bottom of the list even after the increase.
"We are the eighth largest city in this country, and the things we are asking (Jones) to do come with increasing complexity," Lee said. "We need to compensate folks appropriately or we are going to feel the consequences."
The raise would put Jones' base salary somewhere between the three- year-old reported salary of the CEO/Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Inglewood's $388,923 and the CEO of Housing Authority of King County (Washington)'s $352,873. However, it does not include benefits such as health care, a 457 plan and retirement plan, which likely elevates the total compensation package past the $400,000 mark.
Jones, for her part, assured the council that, raise or not, "I'm not going anywhere. This is where I want to be."
Additionally, the authority added a $14,000 performance incentive payment for Jones for her "exemplary service," according to the SDHA's Ad Hoc CEO Performance Evaluation Committee. The Housing Commission's board cited Jones' work during last year's January floods and directing negotiations for a new labor agreement as a reason for the proposed bump.
A performance review is conducted annually for the position.
The wage rise comes at a strained time for the San Diego Housing Commission and the city of San Diego itself. In January, the SDHC ended vouchers for projects intended to incentivize developers to create affordable housing, citing a lack of federal funding for the program.
Earlier in the meeting, Jones presented an informational item stating that due to an announcement from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, funding for an emergency housing voucher program overseen by the housing commission would likely end in April. She said the program supports more than 460 families in the city.
As a result of the difficult financial straits the SDHC faces, two councilmembers decided now was a poor time to raise the wage of an executive employee.
"I don't feel it is the right time to approve tens of thousands in bonuses," Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert said, while acknowledging the work Jones does for the city. "I would need this to be a full budget discussion. I'd have to face a lot of people if I voted to approve this — people who were federal employees and are now sitting at home after being fired by (the Department of Government Efficiency).
"I don't think anyone anticipated the swiftness of the destruction of the federal government."
Councilman Raul Campillo, the only other councilmember to reject the pay raise, said Jones was "undeniably worth every penny we pay her and more," but couldn't in good conscience raise wages while the city faces cuts with a more than $250 million deficit looming.
However, two variables work in favor of the pay raise, in that Mayor Todd Gloria has already reduced said deficit by millions due to cuts and service reductions, and that the "vast majority of the Housing Commission's budget comes from federal and state funding," the city's Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica said.
Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell asked her colleagues to think about things differently, and not ask the consequence of a pay raise, but where the city would be without the SDHC. She estimated anywhere from 10-15,000 more homeless people would be on San Diego's streets without the agency.
Councilman Stephen Whitburn, while supporting the recommendation to provide Jones a raise, said he expects "to see a robust effort to get people off the streets and into housing."
Jones previously served as the SDHC's executive vice president of strategic initiatives before the City Council promoted her. She is the housing commission's sixth leader in its nearly 45-year history.
Before joining the SDHC in 2017, Jones worked for seven years for the Housing Authority of the county of San Bernardino. She concurrently served as executive director of knowledge and education for Your Success, a nonprofit affiliate of the Housing Authority of that county.
Jones has a master's degree in business administration from the Institute of Leadership and Management with the University of West Anglia, England. She also is an alumna of the Impact Center's Women's Executive Leadership Program.
