LETTER

Council gives itself a raise?

 

Mr. Thompsett inadvertently included an interesting observation in one of his  recent letters to the Bulletin -- on the subject of municipal officials, one of his obvious bugbears.  He told us that “in England” (where else?) municipal councillors are not salaried but are volunteers.  This mention is interesting because our city council is considering giving itself a raise, but without newly-incurred responsibilities, of course.

Imagine doing the job as a volunteer. What dedication to one’s community! But while we might think this is admirable, volunteers can often be single-issue extremists, interested only in their one particular cause.  Nothing else matters much, and when they’ve accomplished their goal, their interest in the whole job falls away.

No pay also invites bribery (which also happens with pay, of course).  These can be gifts, future considerations, trips, vacations, entertainment, etc.  This consideration also tells us that an all-volunteer council would be unlikely to have representatives of the working population or the poor – they can’t afford to take time off their work for council’s many duties.  On the opposite side of this coin are salaries which are too high for the work accomplished, and without job evaluations – which always attracts sticky fingers.

How, “in England”, are these problems avoided?

Murray Ryan
Aylmer