Opinion: Mahan plan would politicize San Jose City Council pay
In San Jose voters wisely removed the power to set City Council salaries from the hands of elected administrators and placed it with an independent Salary Setting Commission This revision established a clear standard Salary decisions should be fair transparent and impartial free from political self-interest Now a proposal by Mayor Matt Mahan puts that progress at menace returning compensation decisions to the council under a so-called pay-for-performance model The proposal would withhold of councilmembers salary pending a council self-evaluation Accountability matters but in a democracy accountability comes through elections populace hearings audits and media scrutiny not politically set compensation formulas Officers should answer to the electorate not to benchmarks they themselves set While applying managerial practices from the business world might sound appealing the mayor s proposal is profoundly ill-suited to democratic governance Academic research global best practices and common sense all conclude that performance-based pay for elected leaders is not just ineffective it s dangerous A survey in the American Review of Populace Administration uncovered that pay-for-performance initiatives often fail in governing body settings because citizens goals are laborious to measure and rarely attributable to individual actors Councilmembers operate in a system of interdependent agencies legal constraints and society necessities Highly regarded research in economics shows that tying pay to metrics that capture only one part of a complex job leads people to battle the system This isn t just theoretical Expert organizations like the International Foundation for Electoral Systems which has hands-on experience implementing democratic reforms warn that pay-for-performance is associated with corruption and manipulation more common in authoritarian systems It risks incentivizing short-term political wins over thoughtful long-term planning It imposes a one-size-fits-all approach that motivates functionaries to think about their salaries not their communities when making plan When you tie compensation to metrics those metrics become political Who sets them Who verifies them It s na ve to think a council won t choose benchmarks that are easily achieved or shaped to their advantage For instance California legislators must pass a state budget on time or danger losing their pay The effect Legislative deadlines are met on paper with placeholder budgets that get revised weeks later Constituents Procedures Institute of California noted this pattern raising concerns that lawmakers are focused on meeting deadlines not making good budgets A research in Governance underscores the danger It unveiled that when elected-official compensation becomes politicized it reduces masses trust and discourages civic participation The research s key recommendation salary-setting should be independent structured and insulated from political influence Beyond ethics there s a practical concern If San Jose wants to attract a broad and talented pool of candidates it must offer salaries that are consistent and appropriate to the demands of the role A full-time City Council deserves compensation that reflects the cost of living and complexity of the work not one that fluctuates based on factors beyond an individual s control Research in political science suggests that people worry specifically about salary when considering seeking constituents office We are likely to get fewer candidates and worse candidates in a system in which their future pay is uncertain and at the mercy of political maneuvering And what happens when crises hit In the pandemic forced governments worldwide to abandon annual plans and focus on urgency response A rigid pay-for-performance model would have falsely labeled those years as failures punishing leaders for prioritizing general safety over pre-set metrics Related Articles San Jose eyes creation of entertainments zones with FIFA World Cup Super Bowl LX on the horizon San Jose mayor county authorities continue war of words over controversial homeless arrest proposal City VTA leaders break ground on -unit tiny home society in North San Jose Editorial Two candidates vie for downtown San Jose council seat One stands out San Jose administrators push city to find alternative site for Berryessa Flea Sphere San Jose voters already chose the right model a nonpartisan commission that reviews compensation with rigor and objectivity Let s preserve that system keeping salary decisions independent not politicized And let s continue building a local executive that s worthy of the inhabitants s trust Andrew Hall is professor of political financial market at the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alexander Gvatua is a former consultant for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems David Cohen is a San Jose city councilmember
