Agustin U. here. I served on this year’s commission but dissented on the final recommendation to tie M &C salaries to those of the PC board of supervisors. With all due respect to my colleagues on the commission, this eleventh hour proposal which ended up passing is overly ambitious and excessive. I think we were previously on the right track to use Tucson’s median income as a baseline resulting in a much more acceptable and reasonable 56K and 70K for M&C respectively. I don’t think 413 is going to pass but I am terrible at predictions especially when it comes to elections. Regardless of the outcome, I remain opposed. Much has been said about the language on the official ballot. I pushed for more transparency during our meetings and am concerned about this lack of specificity regarding the raise amounts on the ballot and other publications.
The question I have heard asked is whether the position of City Council Member is a full time position. But I would guess that it is based on the Citizens' Commission's statements.
Another question is how significant of a spending increase is it? 6 Council members going from 24k to 96k, and 1 mayor going from 42k to 121k totals out to be going from 186k to 697k.
This just makes me wonder, are there any programs that exist now that are comparable to this $500k amount? What kind of value does the city normally get out of $500k?
Hey, Brian. The city charter doesn't say anything about the council positions being full-time or not. So there's nothing official either way. But from what I've seen, it can easily be a full-time job, depending on how much the council member wants to work....The money side is interesting. And I'm not clear on how it will be paid for. There was talk of using the budget surplus, but that's kind of a one-time pot of money.
Hi Curt and Caitlan,
Agustin U. here. I served on this year’s commission but dissented on the final recommendation to tie M &C salaries to those of the PC board of supervisors. With all due respect to my colleagues on the commission, this eleventh hour proposal which ended up passing is overly ambitious and excessive. I think we were previously on the right track to use Tucson’s median income as a baseline resulting in a much more acceptable and reasonable 56K and 70K for M&C respectively. I don’t think 413 is going to pass but I am terrible at predictions especially when it comes to elections. Regardless of the outcome, I remain opposed. Much has been said about the language on the official ballot. I pushed for more transparency during our meetings and am concerned about this lack of specificity regarding the raise amounts on the ballot and other publications.
The question I have heard asked is whether the position of City Council Member is a full time position. But I would guess that it is based on the Citizens' Commission's statements.
Another question is how significant of a spending increase is it? 6 Council members going from 24k to 96k, and 1 mayor going from 42k to 121k totals out to be going from 186k to 697k.
This just makes me wonder, are there any programs that exist now that are comparable to this $500k amount? What kind of value does the city normally get out of $500k?
Hey, Brian. The city charter doesn't say anything about the council positions being full-time or not. So there's nothing official either way. But from what I've seen, it can easily be a full-time job, depending on how much the council member wants to work....The money side is interesting. And I'm not clear on how it will be paid for. There was talk of using the budget surplus, but that's kind of a one-time pot of money.