Salisbury has two issues that need to be addressed in the near future. They are compensation for elected officials and reviewing the municipal election cycle. Common sense and levelheaded discourse will bring consensus on a solution.
With the recent controversy over Health Benefits for elected officials the problem is, this is not included in the Municipal Code as a part of the compensation package. Historically this has been offered to elected officials and was simply added in the budget, hence the precedent and policy argument. The problem is the Municipal Code and the Salary Review Committee never offered Health Benefits as part of the compensation package.
The benefit as used by Council Members is worth over $7,000 making total compensation for those who use it at $17,000. The Salary Review Committee should review it this year and make a recommendation that is codified if they opine it should be added to the compensation package.
Next, I believe the Municipal Election Cycle should be returned to the fall with the national and state elections. First this will increase voter turnout and reduce another election cycle. Second this will allow a newly elected Mayor time to settle in and execute priorities with his/her own budget in the spring when that is submitted.
This was changed several years ago due to concern local candidates were lost in the shuffle, the consequence has been less participation at the polls.
Keep the issues there until someone does something about it. Hopefully it will foster debate.
ReplyDelete