HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/4/2020 Item 9, Otto
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Garrett Otto <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Item 9 Council Compensation Committee
Dear Mayor and Council Members,
Thank you for allowing me to opportunity to serve on the council compensation committee. I am just
writing to show my support of the wage increase as we recommended. The discussion on the topic was
thorough and taken seriously. We did solicit public input and if any of the public who does not agree
with our recommendation would have listened to the hours that we discussed the topic they would see
that we tried to make a fair recommendation that addresses many of their concerns but with a goal of
allowing EVERYONE who wishes to run/serve on City Council the opportunity to just that.
I wanted to address one of the main arguments against an increase. The argument that the "City Council
is a service position and therefore should not be compensated much at all" fails to address the issue of
inclusivity. Service can still be accomplished while still being compensated. Service does not mean
volunteer, and being compensated a wage that is well below a livable wage will still prevent this from
being a "job". Many public service positions are compensated for their efforts, and nationwide city
councils are some of the least compensated for that roll. By failing to compensate someone fairly for
their time only leads to reducing the opportunity of who can afford to run for council. This is the reason
that a majority of city councils tend to be mostly retired and independently wealthy individuals. Keep
this in mind when you are looking at the demographic arguing against the increase versus those who are
in support. We are lucky to have broken the trend in SLO, but that only happened very recently. Things
could easily go back to the way it was before if we do not look at ways to break down barriers for those
who wish to run.
Sincerely,
Garrett Otto
San Luis Obispo
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