We've said it before, and now that it's up for discussion once again, we'll repeat our long-held opinion: Bend deserves a professional council, and with professionalism comes commensurate pay.
This month, the City of Bend's Compensation Committee delivered a report to the Bend City Council, outlining its recommendations for increasing councilor and mayor pay. Don't get bowled over by the statistics when we say that the committee recommended a tripling of councilor pay and a doubling of mayor pay, because right now, councilors and mayors don't get paid very much at all — far less than many of their counterparts around the region, the committee said. With a councilor currently earning less than $10,000 and the mayor earing $19,000 for the many meetings, constituent services and other work they do, it's hardly a mint — and really, both Bend and our public servants deserve more.
Not only does current Mayor Melanie Kebler put in far more time and energy than what $19,000 would garner in the private sector, but in terms of quality of service, we believe we always get what we pay for — and paying councilors and mayors a living wage may just add more professionalism to the job.
And then there's the other very big reason we've always supported a fair wage for our mayor and city council: It offers the chance for a more diverse body of elected officials. Right now, a working-class — or even middle-class — individual has to sacrifice a lot in order to serve on this council for the pay it garners. We may never know how many people might have stepped up to run, had it not been slightly above a volunteer position in pay grade. People who earn lower incomes, single parents, those on fixed incomes — these are all people who we'd wager would be strained to put in the time and the work that the public currently expects from this council — and it's only going to get more intense. Every time we turn around, Bend has leapt up in population a few-thousand more people, and some of them are going to want constituent services from their councilors.
For those concerned about the notion of self-dealing, this, like the process followed by many other public officials, would only go into effect for those who serve in the next term, not the current one — meaning some of the councilors who vote in favor of this pay increase may never see it added to their own paychecks.
But Bend is growing, and it's beyond time to pay our council like the (part-time) professionals we want them to be.
