Pay Town Council People
Vail Town Coucil is seriously under payed. Underpaying elected officials undermines our representative democracy in two ways:
Depriving the people of representation.
Reducing the effectiveness of elected leaders by under-resourcing them.
Compensation for elected officials doesn’t neatly align with compensation for other work. The word service gets thrown around a lot - but it’s a different kind of service than waiting tables or joining the army. It’s not a career. We’re not paying them for performance or skill, we’re paying them because they were democratically elected to represent the people - and we have an obligation to the constituency to ensure their chosen representatives have the resources to serve effectively. Those resources include things like a knowledgebale staff, an email address, and money.
How much money is the question at hand presently.
Why would we want council people to be paid like average people?
Because they could be average people.
If Vail wants a full spectrum community, with a leadership reflective of the social and economic diversity of our citizenry - then we should make it financially feasible for the leadership of our community to represent that diversity.
The Town Council is responsible for setting policy and dictating actions that shape Vail’s social, economic, and ecological environment. Our community’s greatest challenges and highest priorities include housing, livability, socio-economic mobility (the missing middle), childcare, cultural diversity, and sustainability.
Increased compensation for Town Council might provide the constituents of Vail a wider range of candidates to choose from for leadership: citizens most directly affected by the economic environment and most likely to be systemically excluded from leadership by that same environment.
If prevailing policy creates a shortage of resources, you are unlikely to meaningfully engage in shaping those policies if the job of changing them is also under-resourced. That’s not fair.
How might our actions and urgency to address community priorities change if future composition of the council includes people that are subject to the current housing market (renters), early-childcare gap, or labor shortage?
How much does Vail town council get paid?
Historically Town Council representatives get paid so little they are often referred to as volunteers. In the modern era we know that unpaid labor under the guise of “good works” has detrimental impacts on effectiveness, productivity, access, diversity, equity, and basic principals of fairness. This has proven to be true for business, conservation, gender equality, charity, and “interns” in any number of professional fields. Why we would choose to perpetuate the ills of underpayment onto our democracy?
What does underpayment look like? It looks like this…
Vail Town Council Meeting Minutes: 9/18/2007 Re: Ordinance 30-2007.
The last time Vail adjusted their council compensation was a $125 increase in 2007 – roughly $180 in 2023 dollars. It passed (almost) unanimously citing a need for socio-economic diversity on the council. It is not immediately clear what the cost and availably of housing and childcare was back in 2007 – or if that $625 a month broke open the doors to diversity in representation. The pay rate hasn’t changed since then – but our world has. Why not adapt?
Aspen considered the issues surrounding compensation and representation and then decided to act. they now pay their mayor $3,325 per month and council members $2,700 per month. Vail doesn’t remotely compare.
Why does town council pay so little?
Underpaying limits representation to two groups of people: those with the time, financial capacity, and social incentives to do the work for pennies; or those with capacity restraints insufficient to do the homework.
So why do we do it? Two common responses – and why they fall short:
“We don’t want people to serve for the money”.
It's easy to say you should serve only for the honor and the commitment to your cause - but pursuing one's passions is a privilege afforded by the resources to do so. The 'fire in the belly' for council exists in a demographic that the current compensation does not adequately provide for. It is up to voters to make determinations about the motivations of their chosen canidates. It is unethical to use compensation as a mechanism to intentionally deprive a constitueny of options.
Consider…
A 2-4 year council term is not a career.
There are easier ways to get a part time job than winning an election.
No one is going to be laughing all the way to the bank by getting paid an average hourly rate for their time
Money is a resource necessary for…
a parent with young kids to afford childcare
a small business owner to hire a supervisor cover the floor
a renter to commit to a 2 to 4 year term; when their future residency relies on a 12 month lease in an increasingly unaffordable and unreliable housing market
for someone with 2 jobs to quit one of them – for 2 to 4 years.
Are parents, renters, and wage earners unqualified? No.
Are they representative? Yes.
Can Vail afford to have representative leadership? You betcha.
“There isn’t that much work to do.”
There are only 7 people that make the big decisions for Vail – and our 90 million dollar bank roll. If it’s not a part time job – shouldn’t it be?
There is a difference between doing the work and doing the homework; but council respondsibilities are work by any reasonable definition…
Actual scheduled meetings.
Communicating with a diversity of constituents: reading emails - possibly responding to emails, phone calls, 1 on 1, events, social media (gasp).
Visiting businesses and community groups.
Consulting with task forces.
Staying current on what’s happening in our community.
Reading packets, minutes, and reviewing tape on hotly debated issues in boards and commissions.
Staying current on what’s happening in other communities and public policy best practices
Thoroughly reviewing the results of hundreds of thousands of dollars and man hours invested in studies and reports.
How much should Town Council get paid?
Don’t pick a number - pick a formula that makes sense and seems fair.
The easiest way to determine monetary compensation is rate & hours: estimate the hours – and pay an average hourly rate.
Average hours can be calculated by taking a randomized poll of current and past members. Self reporting of hours varies by the type of work council people do in regular life. You might not count conversations as council related if your having them in the course of your day job. If your day job doesn’t involve Vail politcs, you are more likely to count council related conversations as additional ‘work’. Assuming all council work is work is a more inclusive approach.
Council Hours Estimate 2022
Why is council compensation scary for some people?
The idea of increaseing council compensation raises eyebrows and blood pressures in a diversity of circles. Talking about our fears honestly is an important step in determining if those fears are valid, or useful. So let’s talk about ‘em.
“Too many people running will dilute the voter base, paying pennies prevents people from running.”
“If you have to work to make ends meat, you probably don’t have have the time or the skill set to lead.”
“The status quo has been successful for Vail - why change it?”
Fear not.
If you are a person that believes that personal wealth and disposable time should be characteristics of an elected leader - you can vote those values. Any town council member can choose to decline their compensation, and you can absolutely set that expectation for a candidate to win your vote. Your values should not be formalized into policy that dissuades candidates without those characteristics from running. That is stacking the deck of democracy - and it has downstream impacts on public policy.
The consequences of underpayment pale in comparison to the consequences of overpayment in a town like Vail. It’s possible that Vail voters elect someone that relies on a paycheck, so let’s pay our town council people as if they need to make rent and pay babysitters.
What do you think?
Voice your opinion where it counts: the council. The current council will have to vote to adjust compensation - but they cannot personally benefit from it. So in order for any sitting council person to get in on the pay increase, they will have to win election next time they are up.
Tuesday, June 6th at 2:40pm Vail Town Council will be hearing a presentation from staff on raising compensation for future council members. Read the memo on the agenda and use the button below to send an email to the Town Council (publicinput.vailtowncouncil@vailgov.com) with your own thoughts.
