We’re not fans of the current administration for the City of Modesto. Too many councilmembers are incurious and too firmly rooted in the past. Nonetheless, we support pay raises for all.
Governing today is far more difficult and time consuming than it was even ten years ago. The pandemic, homelessness, climate change and new laws regulating groundwater usage are only a few recent issues that have required public officials to devote more time and research in order to stay informed and current on matters of public policy.
We’re not naïve enough to believe increases in pay will jolt the hidebound members of this council into a sudden frenzy of studious inquiry into the issues of the day. Nonetheless, all members of the current council devote hours upon hours daily to serving the city. Meetings and public events alone consume enough time to amount to a full-time job if one prepares adequately, and face time with constituents adds more of a burden.
A classic example of how one issue alone can dominate a councilmembers’ calendar is the recent imbroglio over placement of tiny homes for homeless people on church property in a west Modesto neighborhood. When word got out that Church of the Brethren had submitted a proposal to site tiny homes in the Modesto’s Woodland West neighborhood, the ensuing outcry featured enough misinformation and anger to intimidate most any politician. Nonetheless, Chris Ricci, the district’s councilmember, showed up at a hastily called meeting to try to alleviate residents’ concerns and stayed afterwards to answer questions. He offered his email address and phone number to all who were present, well over one-hundred people. A successful entrepreneur, every hour Ricci spends on city business is an hour lost from his occupation.
Eric Alvarez is the youngest member of the Modesto City Council. He’s in his prime years for career growth, yet has devoted a huge portion of his time to public service. The City of Modesto needs younger representatives like Alavarez, but too few can afford the loss of job time that public service requires, especially in these times of social and economic change. Better compensation could encourage more public engagement by young people like Alavarez.
Even before he was elected, Councilmember Nick Bavaro devoted days, weeks, and months to studying homelessness in Modesto and Stanislaus County. He met with outreach workers, homeless people, and law enforcement. He also familiarized himself with local committees on housing and behavioral health. The owner of a business that requires he stay current on health care, Bavaro still makes time to research issues ranging from affordable housing to waste disposal, all on his own time.
Alvarez, Bavaro and Ricci aren’t the only members of the council who have devoted major portions of their daily lives to serving the citizens of Modesto. Every councilmember has been accessible and responsive to their constituents. Current salaries for councilmembers are $24,000 per year; the mayor receives $43,200 per year.
The Citizens Salary Setting Commission has recommended compensation of $30,000 for councilmembers and $54,000 for the mayor. We think that’s still too little pay for what amounts to full-time job plus overtime, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Pay raises will encourage a more diverse slate of candidates and may even encourage more study of the issues of the day, a necessary component of public service as urban problems become more and more complex and complicated.
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IMO the charter amendment providing pay has degraded the quality and motives of many candidates.
Not Sharing: Your brief remark makes me wonder, specifically, what are you referring to?
Until the mayor and city council start showing fiscal restraint they don’t deserve a raise. Throwing money at all problems is not always what needs to be done. When they say they’re spending grant money it infers they were given that money when in reality it’s still our tax dollars. The low income housing proposed for 7th st. ? Is an example. They want to spend many millions of taxpayers dollars for a mid rise apartment complex. These units will be very expensive and how many entities will be making money on this venture? Homeless populations can’t be solved by providing 30 or 40 housing units. First clean up the homeless drug addicts which are a major part of the problem in Modesto.
The remedy for not “showing fiscal restraint” is to vote them out of office. But in the meanwhile they are doing their job and deserve to be paid for it. Also, if an office is underpaid it cannot attract a candidate who is not rich. Poor people know how to get the most out of the least. So if you want fiscal restraint, hire a poor person, pay them a decent wage, snd let them do their job.
You really have to ask WHO is making the final decision and why! Is it to sweep a problem under the rug. To meet a state mandate? Is it an ideology rearing its ugly head? Is it fear of what? Reelection? What? Promise of money or lack there of?
There should never be any financial incentive to serve local government. This always attracts the self serving and corrupt. The reason government work is more burdensome today is a result of the direct failure of government and elected officials. Your solution is to pay them more? That’s the definition of insanity citizen Caine.
Dirtwater: $30,000/yr can hardly be called “a financial incentive to serve local government.” If you are so concerned about money in politics, it would be a better avenue for your energy to focus on campaign finance reform. As for “more burdensome” government work having been caused by “the direct failure of government and elected officials,” you can hardly blame complicating factors like the war in Ukraine and consequent food shortages and rising prices on local government, nor can you blame local government for a pandemic that originated overseas. There are hundreds of other examples of forces beyond local control that nevertheless complicate issues for local elected officials.
first of all, in respect to other cities the proposed increase in pay is within scope to comparable communities. Modesto has a City Manager and 2 Deputies…cost close to 750K, per the mayors job description the Manager is who runs the City. If the Council feels that they have been saddled with lots of work with committees and crab feeds and oversight an evaluation needs to occur. by City Manager. To increase to the max would add another 750K to the budget.
Many in Modesto do not even make a living wage, ones that do leave the county for work.