City Council: The Comeback
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City Council, The Comeback?
Our legislative body might be starting to call up virtually, uh, really legislating…now permit'south advantage them for flirting with substance
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City Council, The Comeback?
Our legislative body might be starting to retrieve nearly, uh, really legislating…now let's reward them for flirting with substance
Feb. eleven, 2016
So, very early on in this new Urban center Council session, I started to feel the oddest sensation. It was vaguely familiar…akin to a thrill running up the leg , to pay homage to Philly homeboy Chris Matthews. What…was…this? It couldn't be what it felt similar, could information technology? I couldn't be feeling encouraged , could I? Nigh the torso that onetime Mayor Pecker Light-green once called the "worst legislative torso in the free world"? A legislature I had excoriated again and again for its dimwittedness, shortsightedness and allergy to transparency?
Miracles practise happen. Okay, okay, that may be a picayune strong. After all, in the first weeks of the new Quango session, we heard the usual litany of bad news about what has long been our embarrassing group of statesmen. That our Council's salaries are the nation's tertiary highest , at a cool $132,789, and the average tenure of our elected representative is 8.ii years, besides third longest. And we learned that 12 of our 17 Quango members, including four of our five newcomers this time around, use urban center vehicles, a pretty cushy perk for such a well-paid chore that isn't in session 23 weeks a year.
There are signs of activist legislating on Council. Helen Gym called for hearings that would delve into Schoolhouse District finances and Derek Greenish argued for floating social touch bonds to help fund vital programs. Fifty-fifty Quango President Darrell Clarke joined Mayor Kenney in urging the edifice trades to get more than diverse.
But when this session started, there were suddenly some encouraging signs. I've already touched on the lofty goals of freshman Allan Domb. There was besides fellow freshman Helen Gym, who chosen for hearings that would delve into Schoolhouse Commune finances and introduced a pecker that would require companies to reinvest revenue enhancement breaks into real job cosmos. There was another freshman, Derek Green, who chosen for social impact bonds to help fund public programs, an innovative public/individual partnership in which governments don't pay until specific policy goals are met. And in that location was fifty-fifty Council President Darrell Clarke joining Mayor Kenney in urging the building trades to become more diverse.
All of this type of activist legislating flies in the face of Metropolis Quango'south contempo history. It'south long been a body more interested in the nuts and bolts of constituent service than in ambitiously solving systemic bug. The dominion in Metropolis Council has been that our legislators moonlight every bit glorified caseworkers. You have a noisy neighbor? A streetlight out? Call Council. In that location's nix incorrect with constituent service, of form, unless and until information technology serves as a disincentive for elected officials to do the harder work of actually governing. In a decadent, one-party town, you tin become reelected again and once again past fixing potholes. (Which explains many Councilpersons' original opposition to the city's 311 customer service line; information technology encroached on Quango's balloter gravy train turf).
But maybe this is a new 24-hour interval for Council. There'southward some new blood, and Quango President Clarke appears liberated by the absence of arch-nemesis Mayor Michael Nutter. Maybe substance is virtually to make a comeback.
But why take a chance? Let's make certain this sudden flare-up of ambition isn't an anomaly. Hither's a modest proposal: Align our Council members' salaries to the mission of governing by taking a page from what has improved management in corporate America—pay for performance.
This idea was start advanced a couple of years agone by Sheila Bair, the former caput of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and one of the few heroes of the 2008 Smashing Recession . Bair proposed we hold one-half of each Congressperson's salary in Treasury bonds, to be released upon three separate triggers: One-third when the nation hit agreed-upon labor participation rate. Another tertiary tied to the charge per unit of GDP growth. The release of the final 3rd of bacon would exist determined by the citizens themselves. "Shareholders get to take an advisory vote on executive bounty," she wrote in Fortune magazine . "Why not taxpayers likewise?"
Let's make certain this sudden burst of ambition isn't an anomaly. Hither'south a pocket-size proposal: Align our Council members' salaries to the mission of governing by taking a page from what has improved management in corporate America—pay for operation.
A system like this would be akin to saying to Darrell Clarke, et al: Y'all want to continue your insider deals and perks? The gift task to Wilson Goode , the 23 weeks off, the cars? Fine. In exchange, you lot've got to acknowledge that the era of political welfare is over. It's time for you to get off the dole. If you lot believe in merit, you shouldn't have whatsoever problem with one-half of your bacon tied to functioning metrics. Imagine: Nosotros hold back $66,394.50 of each Councilmember'southward salary, only releasing information technology when, say, the urban center hits a couple of goals: A drop in the poverty rate, for example, and an uptick in employment. The terminal $22,131.50 would be triggered past a denizen "shareholder" vote. If we're happy with your operation, you'll make that scratch.
Hey Quango members, he asked, tongue firmly in cheek …Who among you would get behind an idea similar this?
Header Photo past Kyle Ferino
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/city-council-the-comeback/
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