UPDATED: City council deserves higher pay

Tom Hardy in a CCOW meeting asking Council to put his
 Mackey Creek Project on the Consent Agenda

OPINION:  Our city council works very, very hard and they should be paid more than their $1000/month salary.  They put in well over 14 hours per week not counting community events.

Besides weekly "study sessions" and "regular meetings" where business is transacted, they participate in four "council committees" to meet with staff and keep current on city business. [Planning and Public Works, Parks and Human Services, Safety, and Finance, Administration and Communications.]

Until April 7th and for the life of this city, three Council members, were assigned to  council standing committees to meet weekly for information and education by staff on existing city programs and issues in preparation for possible policy decisions.  Owing to a State Open Government revision and the city's tremendous growth --now 68,000 residents -- with much more to come, Council changed their standing committee structure to "Council Committee Of The Whole" (CCOW) where all seven council members participate weekly. The council is now working even harder and longer. And so is staff.  I've been to a couple CCOW meetings where staff has asked Council to put their programs on the Consent Agenda.  City business is speeding and government is now in a better position to keep up.

The new Council Committee Of The Whole should significantly increase participation of our elected and encourage staff to be more active, open and accountable to council.  As a result, study sessions and regular meetings, when aligned with CCOW, will be more productive and final decisions more effective and timely.  CCOW meetings are held on Tuesdays, 4:30 pm at City Hall and are open to the public.

Over the years standing committees have been very important to the operation of our city and they've evolved.

Fred Reil, the city's first Mayor instituted standing committees six months after our city of 300 was founded in 1912.  It's fun and interesting to see how Mr. Reil arranged them  Saloons were the largest source of revenue back then so it's obvious why a "licence" standing committee was set up.

In Mayor Selwin Young's time, one of his 1978 standing committee's was "Rules and Ethics."  Amazingly, the city ruled that Planning Director Jonathan Hartman could not retire until he reached the age of 65.  And, there was no specific Parks or Human Services committee....only a reference to them under "Human Resources."

Mayor Doreen Marchione's 1990 standing committees further evolved and are referenced here. They are much like Mayor Rosemary Ives's committees.

B. Yoder

Special thanks to the Redmond Historical Society for their resources and help in laying out this story; and to Michelle Hart, City Clerk, for digging out the standing committee iterations and her leadership in the formation of CCOW.