The CCC is going to vote themselves a raise tonight. Wish I could do that!
The Indianapolis City-County Council tonight will vote on a 3 percent pay raise for county elected officials and introduce a 2008 pay raise of 75 percent for themselves.City Controller Bob Clifford earlier said the 2007 budget provided about $30,000 to give to elected officials the same 3 percent raise that other county employees will receive next year. He said the city administration forgot to ask for a corresponding change in the city code to reflect the budget.
Republican officials questioned the timing of the elected officials' pay raise proposal, which came less than a week after Democrats won a number of offices previously held by Republicans, including city clerk, recorder, auditor and assessor. These offices, the coroner, surveyor and the township assessors would receive about $2,000 more each if Proposal 612 passes.
The pay raise for council members would increase their salary from 12 percent to 21 percent of the mayor's salary. The mayor made $95,000 in 2006, so the council members' pay would jump in 2008 to $19,950 from $11,400 now for the part-time position. Proposal 644 was introduced by council member Rozelle Boyd, a Democrat. Democrats control the council 15-14.
This is disgusting. There are any number of reasons why this is wrong.
1) I work harder than any idiot elected to the council and I didn't get a 75% pay raise this year. Or any other year, for that matter.
2) No pay increase should ever go into effect until after the next election of the people who vote it in.
3) Being a councilman should be an avocation, not your day job. Thus you should not be paid for it at all, except perhaps for your expenses -- and those only after they are audited closely by an independent auditor, preferably contracted and assigned by the Governor. This is a Class One city, after all...it should be held to a higher standard.
4) No councilman should make more than a grunt police officer. And police officers should get preference on pay increases when the budget is made up. That should be codified into a public ordinance.
5) The mayor is probably underpaid (yes, I said that), but council salaries should not be tied to his.
Drop the pay to zero and you might not get the best people to run for the offices, but they'd be more interested in their civic duty than how much they were taking home on the public dime. And that might be better for the city in the long run.
H/T: Joe Friday.
