The City Council pay debate is back up for discussion, this time regarding the methodology by which councillors’ salaries should be determined going forward. An ordinance sponsored by at-large Councillor Ayanna Pressley and Councillor Matt O’Malley would tie raises to Boston’s median income so that councillor salaries would rise and fall along with their constituents’ incomes.

On Tuesday, the council’s Government Operations Committee, with Councillor at-large Michael Flaherty as chairman took matter, with Pressley, O’Malley and Councillors Michelle Wu, Bill Linehan, and Tito Jackson in attendance.

There was a consensus among panel members that, even if they were in favor of a pay raise throughout this year’s debate, the situation was publicly embarrassing and a nuisance procedurally.

“We can fix this now so we never have to be in the unenviable position of setting our own pay scale or salaries again,” O’Malley said. He said he was open to other councillors’ ideas and working sessions are planned for further discussion.

After a year of back and forth between the council, Mayor Walsh, and the city’s Compensation Advisory Board, the council voted, 9-4, at the end of October to increase members’ annual salaries to $99,500.

O’Malley, who had opposed the raise initially, voted in favor of it with the understanding that he and Pressley would be introducing the pay-scale ordinance later on.

Acrimony attended the process over more than a year’s time. Last year, councillors initially voted to raise the council salary from $87,500 to $112,500. They later set the number at $107,500. The mayor vetoed the bill and eventually offered the $99,500 number as a compromise that the council accepted in October.

Correlating councillor salaries with median household income, as those in the Legislature’s are, “is fair, it’s transparent, it’s predictable,” Pressley said at Tuesday’s session.

How to ensure a fair pay rate was the question put to a panel comprising of Vivian Leonard, director of the Office of Human Resources; Matt Cahill, director of the Boston Finance Commission; and  Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Each raised concerns with the legality and effectiveness of tying council wages to median income. One issue noted was how to measure non-salary perks like parking and health benefits.

Tyler said that the problem with this cycle of pay raises was an anomaly from earlier years of regular evaluation and recommended raises in 1998, 2002, and 2006. “If the Compensation Advisory Board process is allowed to work, it works better for the city council and the mayor than a measure,” Tyler said.