A divided University Place City Council voted early Tuesday morning to rescind a 2010 pay raise it adopted just two weeks earlier for newly elected council members.

But a proposal to cut council members’ pay by 50 percent and increase their family health insurance premiums failed when the six members present deadlocked 3-3.

The actions came at the conclusion of a remarkable 51/2-hour meeting punctuated with pleas from residents to save the city’s parks and recreation program. At one point, more than 250 coaches, players, parents, senior citizens and others flooded the council chambers and spilled out its front and side doors.

Mayor Linda Bird promoted the pay-cut plan as a way to save more than $100,000 for core recreation programs. Critics said Bird was grandstanding and improperly linking salaries with program cuts. The votes around 12:15 a.m. came less than seven hours before the polls were to open for an election in which four of the council’s seven seats were on the ballot.

The vote to cut council pay in half came first, with Bird, Debbie Klosowski and Gerald Gehring in favor; Ken Grassi, Lorna Smith and Jean Brooks were opposed. Stan Flemming was absent.

When that failed, Grassi asked if the council could rescind the pay raise action it took Oct. 19. That motion was approved 4-2, with Bird and Klosowski voting no because they wanted pay cuts. (Council salaries will still rise 3 percent next year under a cost-of-living provision.)

Council members now are paid $1,367 a month, the mayor pro tem earns $1,476 and the mayor $1,639. The pay hike approved by the council two weeks ago would have raised salaries roughly another 7 percent on top of the cost-of-living increase.

Kris Sherman, The News Tribune