In June the Ceres Planning Commission recommended to the City Council that the city withhold $40 if a meeting is cancelled or if a commissioner was absent.

Supporting the recommendation were Commissioners R.J. Jammu, Dorie Perez and Francisco Mireles while Bob Gobble and Condit wanted to forego the $80 per month stipend altogether.

Last week the council found a consensus of 3-2 to make the change with Mayor Javier Lopez and Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez being opposed.

“I don’t think there’s a need to pay the $80 stipend a month if there isn’t any meetings,” said Councilwoman Cerina Otero. “I think $40 a meeting and for attendance is reasonable.”

Ceres resident Dave Pratt noted that a majority of Planning Commission meetings are cancelled (for a lack of business).

“If there’s no work for them, then maybe they shouldn’t be compensated,” said resident John Warren. “I think the per-meeting choice would be the way to go, and it would be up to council to make the decision on the amount of dollars.”

In June Commissioner Dorie Perez, who is running for City Council, was one of those opposed to completely eliminating the stipend. She opined that zero compensation would not encourage anyone to volunteer and serve and noted the stipend would help her pay for a babysitter for her children while she attended meetings.

Besides attending meetings, commissioners are expected to read and study staff reports beforehand.

Mayor Lopez said he feels like commissioners need more training.

“I think that the Planning Commission should most definitely just keep their stipend,” said the mayor. “They haven’t received any type of change for as long as I can remember and I think that it would just be remiss that we start cutting their pay down, especially if other planning commissioners utilize it to pay for their daycare. I don’t want to be the one to take that away.”