City of Boulder Ballot Question 2C: Yes to City Council Compensation Change

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Measurement by Year Rather Than by Month for Compensation for City Council Members

Yes

No

The City of Boulder charter currently states that members of city council can only be paid for four meetings a month, which equals only 48 meetings a year. The problem is obvious. Some months have more than four meetings, and there are 52 weeks in the year.

Clearly
the charter language should be changed so that the small payments that
city council members receive can be doled out every week the council
meets and every meeting the council member attends.

The
real issue with council compensation that isn’t being addressed with
this change is that City Council members should be paid a full-time wage
for their time and trouble. This would open up the pool of potential
council candidates as well as creating a fair system for those who
sacrifice their time to serve our community. It would also create a
system more like that enjoyed by the Boulder County Commissioners, who,
thanks to good compensation, can work full-time on the issues and are
therefore not relegated to being merely rubberstamps for staff
recommendations. So vote yes on 2C this year. But let’s work to get
council members a living wage in the future so that our city government
can become more representative of the population and more effective at
governing.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com