The San Diego City Council on Monday voted 5-3 to reject its 24 percent salary increase it voted for on April 14. Mayor Jerry Sanders vetoed the pay hike April 17.

Council President Scott Peters and Councilmember Ben Hueso announced last week they would not support the raise they initially voted in favor of, which would have increased council members’ pay from $75,386 to $93,485. Mayor Sanders vetoed the raise last week, nixing plans for his own salary increase, from $100,464 to $130,000 annually.

The council, which could have overridden the mayor’s veto with a 5-3 vote Monday, instead struck the pay increase down. Peters and Hueso joined Council members Kevin Faulconer, Donna Frye and Brian Maienschein, who voted against the proposal last week. Council members Toni Atkins, Jim Madaffer and Tony Young supported the raise.

When the issue of the council members’ $9,600 annual car allowance was raised in a separate vote, the council voted 6-2 to eliminate the stipend. Madaffer and Hueso supported keeping it.

“This place is loony!” said Madaffer, telling others the vote represented “a cut in salary.” He and others urged the council to reconsider the vote, which it did.

The second time around, Atkins and Young voted with Madaffer and Hueso to oppose eliminating the allowance. Faulconer motioned to cut the car allowance and Frye seconded. Peters and Maienschein voted with Faulconer and Frye to eliminate it. The 4-4 vote means the motion failed, and the council, including City Attorney Michael Aguirre, will keep the allowance. Peters and Sanders do not accept it.

In a last ditch attempt to persuade the council not to vote against its raise, which was met with public outcry, attorney Robert Ottilie, a member of the Salary Setting Commission, released figures that he said showed that 3,299 city workers all made higher salaries than anyone on the City Council. Most of the positions were from the police and fire department and overtime was included in the comparison.

”Seven-hundred-forty-six firefighters make more than you make; 31 lifeguards make more; 16 librarians make more than you make,” Ottilie said.

Peters, Atkins, Madaffer and Maienschein, who are termed out in November, would not have been eligible for pay raise, which would have taken effect in January 2009.

Atkins said people did not understand the city charter requires the issue of council salaries be put on the docket every two years as part of the process with the Salary Setting Commission, a seven-member group which recommended even higher salaries than the council initially approved.

”I think the mayor’s salary is too low,” said Young, who added that higher salaries would strengthen future candidates for council and the mayor’s position.

Sanders currently accepts $36,000 of his salary, as he is eligible to receive a pension for being a 26-year employee of San Diego Police. Peters did not accept the Council’s last raise in 2002 and his pay is $71,522.