Through my eyes

Ron Davis

Wanted: o7 Mature, intelligent, experienced and personable,

thick-skinned adult to work with a small team of others with similar

makeup as decision/policy makers for a large corporation. Must be

prepared to work at least 40 to 60 thankless hours per week, including

evenings, weekends and holidays. No bonus or profit sharing plan. Salary:

$175 per month.

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Doesn’t this job description and attendant salary just make you drool?

Why, I’ll bet a number of you had to get extra napkins or tissues just to

make your way through the copy.

For those of you who couldn’t do the math, the salary works out to

something on the order of 75 cents an hour. Stated another way, the happy

recipient of this princely monthly salary earns about one-seventh of the

minimum wage. In fact, if a family were relegated to this monthly salary,

it would set new records for living below the poverty line.

What position demands so much and pays so little? A Huntington Beach

City Council member.

Disabuse yourself of the notion that this is some sort of cream-puff

job with no real responsibilities. Council meetings are just the tip of

the iceberg in running this $270-million corporation. In addition to

council meetings, members attend study sessions, committee after

committee meetings, and meetings with constituents, lobbyists and

department heads. All of which take place mornings, evenings, weekends

and holidays and consume 40 to 60 hours per week.

It is not politically popular to suggest that we pay for something we

now get almost for free. Some will point to the current, eminently

qualified City Council, as evidence that people are willing to serve in

that position as volunteers. But, that ignores the fact that many of

those who currently serve on our City Council would be willing to spend

even more time on our behalf and be even better representatives, but for

the fact that they have to make a living. Expressed a different way, for

some members, having to earn a living gets in the way of being the best

councilperson they can be. Moreover, the office of City Council member

should not be open only to those who can afford to occupy the office. Our

salary structure effectively eliminates most people who have a regular

job with regular hours. As a result, our council consists of those who

have sufficient wealth so that they don’t require an income, or

professionals who can vary their hours to accommodate most of the council

obligations, or college professors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed

to being represented by any of these individuals, but merely suggest that

the position shouldn’t be open exclusively to this narrow class of

persons.

Persons of wealth, professionals and college professors are not a

representative cross-section of this community. We pay reasonable

salaries to our city clerk, city attorney and city treasurer, all are

elected officials.

While I am not suggesting salaries of the same magnitude for City

Council members, I am suggesting we revisit the $175 a month we currently

pay them. An independent committee, such as the finance board, should

make a salary recommendation to the citizens of Huntington Beach, which

ought to be placed on the March 2002 ballot for our approval or

disapproval.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He

can be reached by e-mail at o7 RDD@socal.rr.com.f7