This is a really great write up - and I couldn’t agree more that these elections should be more competitive! Do you think that paying city council members more will cause more of a financial motive for people to run instead of genuine interest to serve?
I think it’s OK for politicians to give at least some consideration to financial motives. If we paid politicians $0, then we’d only get representatives who are already independently wealthy. If we paid politicians $1 million then we’d get a lot more candidates trying hard to win residents’ votes and get re-elected, because it would be more lucrative than being a fancy lawyer, consultant, or big tech VP.
I think this is really fair! We shouldn’t think of their jobs as an “awe vocation” where because they care about their roles, they shouldn’t be fairly comp’ed!
I’m not 100% sure, but I feel like the public advocate is supposed to be speaking up about issues like this, but not sure that is happening 🥲
Would be great to have him speaking up on this issue!
This is a really great write up - and I couldn’t agree more that these elections should be more competitive! Do you think that paying city council members more will cause more of a financial motive for people to run instead of genuine interest to serve?
I think it’s OK for politicians to give at least some consideration to financial motives. If we paid politicians $0, then we’d only get representatives who are already independently wealthy. If we paid politicians $1 million then we’d get a lot more candidates trying hard to win residents’ votes and get re-elected, because it would be more lucrative than being a fancy lawyer, consultant, or big tech VP.
I dug into this topic a bit more here: https://www.sidewalkchorus.com/p/pay-council-members-more
I think this is really fair! We shouldn’t think of their jobs as an “awe vocation” where because they care about their roles, they shouldn’t be fairly comp’ed!