Narrow Minded Politicians &
Citizens who are too busy to learn about the local issues and the local politicians. I was one of those citizens for many years but then, I woke up and realized that if I didn't get informed and didn't give them my thoughts that I had no room to complain about anything.
I also believe that a big part of our shortage of elected officials with creative ideas is directly attributable to our lousy salaries of $500 for council and $1000 for the mayor. These ridiculously low salaries keep many good people from ever considering taking on such a difficult task as is involved in meeting weekly and also participating in many special sessions and other sub-committee meetings. These low salaries also leave open that concern that elected officials benefit from some secret information or get some special secret perks that no-one else knows about. The real truth is that we run our city government on the backs of a few dedicated individuals that run for whatever reasons. However we are limiting the choice of our candidates to possibly retired individuals or businessmen who can afford to attend all those meetings and not ever be adequately compesated for the value of their time given each week.
This elected official salary issue needs to fixed before the next election in April 2005 or we will get the same old tired individuals and their tired ideas. I believe that you get what you pay for and I think we can afford to pay more in order to attract some new candidates with new ideas. The charter commission wanted to increase these salaries but once again they chickened out on a tough issue so the time has come for the citizens to demand some increases as the cost of better government and the salavation of a propserous future for our city .
Citizens who are too busy to learn about the local issues and the local politicians. I was one of those citizens for many years but then, I woke up and realized that if I didn't get informed and didn't give them my thoughts that I had no room to complain about anything.
I also believe that a big part of our shortage of elected officials with creative ideas is directly attributable to our lousy salaries of $500 for council and $1000 for the mayor. These ridiculously low salaries keep many good people from ever considering taking on such a difficult task as is involved in meeting weekly and also participating in many special sessions and other sub-committee meetings. These low salaries also leave open that concern that elected officials benefit from some secret information or get some special secret perks that no-one else knows about. The real truth is that we run our city government on the backs of a few dedicated individuals that run for whatever reasons. However we are limiting the choice of our candidates to possibly retired individuals or businessmen who can afford to attend all those meetings and not ever be adequately compesated for the value of their time given each week.
This elected official salary issue needs to fixed before the next election in April 2005 or we will get the same old tired individuals and their tired ideas. I believe that you get what you pay for and I think we can afford to pay more in order to attract some new candidates with new ideas. The charter commission wanted to increase these salaries but once again they chickened out on a tough issue so the time has come for the citizens to demand some increases as the cost of better government and the salavation of a propserous future for our city .