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In Our View: Give People a Say on Pay

City council should place referendum on ballot on mayoral, councilor salaries

The Columbian
Published: April 26, 2016, 6:01am

With growing consternation over a pay increase for Vancouver’s mayor and city council members, now is the time for those very same councilors to demonstrate leadership. Now is the time for them to represent their constituents. Now is the time to give the populace an opportunity to weigh in.

The city council should place a referendum on the ballot allowing the public to share its thoughts regarding a 117 percent raise for the mayor and a raise of about 50 percent for council members. Those raises were approved last week by the city’s Salary Review Commission, which decided by a 3-2 vote to increase the mayor’s salary from $27,600 to $60,000 beginning in January. City councilors will see their pay bumped from $21,600 to $32,496, while the mayor pro tem will go from $24,000 to $37,500.

Understandably, the commission’s decision has raised some hackles in the community. At issue are the facts that: The salary commission is appointed by the mayor and approved by the council; Mayor Tim Leavitt lobbied for a substantial pay increase; and the public has no recourse against the decisions of the independent commission.

Well, almost no recourse. Two former mayors — Royce Pollard and Bruce Hagensen — are leading an effort to place a referendum on the November ballot, giving voters an opportunity to overturn the salary increases. That will require the gathering of 2,700 valid petition signatures by May 18.

Placing a referendum on the ballot is a difficult task — as it should be. But citizens should not be beholden to that difficulty when the city council has the ability to place a ballot measure on the docket. And that is where leadership is needed from the seven members of the city council.

The salary review commission was established in the 1990s with the adoption of a city charter, and since then it has been largely nondescript. Well, it was nondescript until this month, when discussion of large pay increases grabbed the attention of the public and pointed out the absurdity of the process. The fact that the commission has no oversight — it could raise salaries to $1 million a year, or $500,000, or whatever number it chooses — reflects a poorly designed system.

Leavitt, while arguing in favor of a pay increase, suggested that the mayor’s position should be treated as a full-time job, and the commission apparently bought into that logic. The problem: It is not the job of commission members to make such a decision. Treating the mayoral position as a full-time job when Vancouver has a city-manager form of government should require a public discussion and should be dependent upon a change to the city charter. It certainly should require more than an ill-conceived decision from five people who were appointed by the mayor.

In the end, it comes down to a city government needing to be beholden to its constituents. It comes down to the city council needing to demonstrate leadership and listening skills. It comes down to giving the public a say in what form of city government will best serve the people of Vancouver.

Once upon a time, the citizens of Vancouver approved a system in which a salary commission determined the pay level for elected city officials. And while some officials have suggested that the people have spoken regarding this issue, it would be prudent to ask them again.

We believe a 117 percent raise for the mayor of Vancouver is outrageous. But don’t take our word for it; let’s ask the public what it thinks.

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