St. Paul E-Democracy Links http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/links.html _____________________________________________
With apologies to my former fellow IPer Pam, I want a part-time St. Pal council (and a part-time legislature). It's that cynical side of me that believes if it's a full-time job our representatives will have enough time to find things to screw with/up. And, the citizen legislator side of me that doesn't want the same person in the same office for 10+ years. However, we must realize that these public service jobs DO require a certain amount of time and a certain amount of pay is needed to attract the broadest base of candidates while maintaining a semblance of competitiveness in the elections and public service in the job. Set pay too low and you'll likely only get retirees and the independently wealthy to run. Set it too high and you ask for careerism while, most likely, 'pricing out' regular-folk from being able to compete. My thoughts are that a figure which allows one to do the job full-time (if they wish to) and be able to live on it while being low enough that the money would/could be better "in the real world" is the best level of compensation. For St. Paul - I lobbied my council member (to no avail) to raise the pay to the mid-$30s. I know people who make more than $50k a year. I know far, far more that make between $28k and $35K. I think $47k a year has just increased the cost of campaigns, priced out a whole range of folk from being able to compete and cemented the position of St. Paul City Council member as a career job not public service. Phil Fuehrer Highwood Hills - District 1 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
