Boston’s city councillors are regrouping after an awkward City Hall hearing about a proposed pay increase on Monday at which councilors were told the proposal as it stands is illegal and punishable by fines and jail time.

Early last month, Council President Bill Linehan of South Boston proposed an increase to $112,500, from $87,500, effective upon passage. Most of the nine councilors at Monday morning’s hearing acknowledged the “awkwardness” inherent to setting their own pay raise, although no one came out against the proposal. The council last voted to increase members’ salaries in 2006.

At the hearing, Henry C. Luthin, the city’s first assistant corporation counsel, testified that the soonest the councilors could institute the pay raise would be November 2015 – a year after the upcoming city council election, although a conflicting state rule could put off the raise to January 2016. Under the state’s ethics laws, if councilors vote to pass the raise effective immediately, members would face the possibility of fines up to $10,000 and five years in prison, Luthin said.

Hearing that, Dorchester Councillor Frank Baker said that if the council goes ahead with raising pay immediately upon passage, as planned, the state “may want to make an example of the Boston City Council.” Following the hearing, Linehan told the Reporter, “I have to take some time to absorb it all and figure out what our next steps will be.”

Only one member of the public testified about the pay raises at the hearing. Shirley Kressel, an urban planner and longtime critic of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said if the council reclaimed their power from the BRA, they would be doing enough work to justify a pay increase.

“The fact that only one person showed up to testify is an indication that this is not the most important thing that is on the minds of the residents of the city of Boston,” Linehan said.

At-Large Councillor Ayanna Pressley echoed Linehan’s sentiments, saying her office had received fewer than a dozen inquiries and that the issue had only come up a handful of times in various community meetings and interactions with constituents.

Still, Pressley and others, including fellow at-large Councillor Michelle Wu, expressed concern over the amount of the increase, saying $112,500 was too high. When asked, Pressley said that $98,000, recommended in 2013, proved a “fair basis, but I don’t want to be irresponsible here and propose a specific number because there are a lot of things to be considered around median income and cost of living and inflation.” She said she supports a proposal by Councillor Matt O’Malley of Jamaica Plain that would index councilor pay in a similar process to the legislators on Beacon Hill.

Baker testified that regardless of the proposed pay increase amount, he would support it, estimating it could take another “10 years” for the council to successfully pass another raise.

“Moving forward, we need to establish a mechanism of transparency and predictability that will not have the council in this position,” Pressley told the Reporter. “But as it stands, this is our only lever with which to increase salaries.”

Recommendations for pay raises are invested in a Compensation Advisory Board, whose proposal for pay raises in 2013 was largely ignored by then-Mayor Thomas Menino. Councillors also questioned the potential politicization of the board, given that all five of its members and its chair were appointed by the mayor.

Some councillors took issue with a perception that they did not deserve a pay raise, citing time spent meeting with constituents, at community meetings, and the need to always be available to their constituents.

Mayor Walsh has not publicly given his position on the issue. In one possibility recommended at the hearing, the councillors’ pay would be tied to the mayor’s, with them receiving half what the mayor earns. That option is off the table as Walsh is not seeking a pay raise, mayoral spokeswoman Kate Norton confirmed.

At the Sept. 17 council meeting, Wu and Councillor Josh Zakim of Back Bay and Beacon Hill introduced an ordinance proposal that would create an independent commission of citizens that would weigh pay increases. That proposal was thrown out because of a technicality and cannot be refiled until action is taken on the pay raises.

Ben Stuart, an associate at the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, said that the “easiest and cleanest solution” to the appearance of a conflict of interest would be to have salary increase go in effect after the next election. “Take this slowly. There is no reason for this to pass right now.”