Tacoma City Council is getting a big raise. Think they don’t deserve it? Think again | Opinion
It’s OK if you don’t feel particularly sorry for members of the Tacoma City Council. I get it.
Is it demanding? Absolutely. Do elected officials get yelled at — sometimes unfairly? Sure. Are there meetings, on top of meetings, with a few more meetings thrown in for good measure? That’s the job — what members of the council signed up to do.
Should they get paid more, regardless of what you think of the current council’s effectiveness and decisions?
Without a doubt.
Significantly more — above and beyond the sizable raise that’s now headed their way.
Wait … what?
Scoff if you want, but it’s true.
As any resident of Tacoma can tell you, the city faces no shortage of challenges — from a lack of affordable housing and an ever-growing homelessness crisis to troubling increases in crime, including violent offenses like homicides. In the face of all this, it’s not just fair to question the response of our elected officials, it’s justified, and frankly, the outcry should probably be louder. If this was purely about assessing the current council’s job performance, talk of raises would sound absurd.
But it’s not, at least the simplest of terms. That’s the tricky part.
If anything, it’s about considering the ways our council routinely fails, in large part from its very design, and then identifying the easiest way to fix it:
More money – and more time to do the job.
On Tuesday night, Tacoma’s Citizen Commission on Elected Salaries took a step in the right direction, voting to give City Council members a 20% raise — a move that would increase base pay for most council members by roughly $10,000 a year.
As The News Tribune’s Becca Most reported, for most members it means an annual salary of roughly $63,000, while the pay for Deputy Mayor, a council-appointed position currently held by Kristina Walker, will increase to roughly $70,000 a year.
The commission also voted to give Tacoma’s mayor a 5% pay bump, bringing the position’s salary up to roughly $111,000 a year.
The pay hikes will go into effect Jan. 1, after the city council adopts the commission’s decision, which is only a formality under the city’s charter.
In Tacoma, mayor is currently classified as a full-time position, while serving on the council has historically been considered part-time employment — even though that’s laughable and everyone who has spent the time it takes to do the job well knows it.
So why should Tacoma residents and taxpayers welcome the raises? It’s simple, and an argument I’ve made many times before.
When you pay your city council what amounts to a bare minimum living wage you get a predictable result.
A small number of generally comfortable people from the same circles and socioeconomic backgrounds run for office, and in turn, many of those people end up running the city — because almost no one else can make it pencil out.
Meanwhile, anyone who doesn’t fit this description ends up running themselves ragged, trying to balance council responsibilities with realities like the need to put food on the table.
Now here’s the thing: Giving Tacoma City Council members a raise — even one as significant as 20% – won’t solve every problem. For perspective, the Tacoma Housing Authority recently raised its minimum wage for its employees to $32 an hour, which is roughly $66,000 a year, or slightly more than city council members will make after the raises are adopted. It’s not like seeking public office in Tacoma suddenly became lucrative.
As Tacoma’s Citizen Commission on Elected Salaries stated in a draft letter explaining its rationale for approving the raises, the ultimate goal is to push Tacoma to finally make city council a full-time position.
“Finances should not be a barrier to effective representation that reflects the depth and breadth of the diversity of our city,” the letter stated. “The ability to respond to the complex issues of a modern major city like ours requires substantial time investment and the undivided attention of the council.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself, and for the state’s third largest city, it’s long overdue.
Want a better city council? Here’s an idea:
Make the job a real job — one that real people can afford to take on and dedicate themselves to.
You might be surprised by the results.
