Emerald
Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O.Box3159,Eugene,OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon. uoregon.edu
On-line edition: www.dailyemerald.com
A gesture of gratitude
Providing payment
to the mayor and
City Council
members, who
currently work on
a volunteer basis,
would be a step
toward improving
the quality of
(
t
Eugene
Let them eat cake. Or at least
throw them a morsel. The,
proposed plan to pay the Eu
gene City Council is a good
idea we should all support because
the better the city is run, the better
student life in Eugene will be.
As it stands now the mayor and
City Council members go unpaid for
their long hours of under-appreciat
ed civic efforts. Most students proba
bly don’t know the number of coun
cil members, how many meetings
they hold in a year or that in fact
there are actually people devoting
their time to make Eugene one of the
most desirable places to live in the
coming decade.
While there has been no formal
proposal as to the amount of pay or
where the money comes from, the
idea in general is a must for a grow
ing city for both symbolic and practi
cal reasons.
It sends the wrong message to our
citizens that the work the mayor and
council members do is not worthy of
a small gesture that shows their
work is valued and appreciated. If
entertainers and sports person- a
alities are on TV making mil- A
lions for hocking sugar water, 9
kids will get a distorted per
spective of societal importance \
when their city council doesn’t
even earn enough from their jobs
to buy a Starbucks nonfat mocha.
While the city of Eugene can’t
change an entire social paradigm on
its own, it can and should make the
effort to properly stratify the mem
bers af this community, starting by
recognizing and honoring elected of
ficials who work for the public good.
Having a mayor being paid less than
a homeless man pandering on a street
corner isn’t a happy analogy, but it’s
alarmingly accurate.
Besides the symbolic necessity for
paying—and thereby respecting—the
council members, there are praccal
reasons for dishing out a little coin.
Paying the mayor and council ‘
members would maintain a high lev
el of talented minds to run the city.
Paid positions will attract a wider ar
ray of candidates and increase the di
versity of opinions by affording
council people a small amount of
monetary latitude to pay for child
care, travel or other logistics that may
make an unpaid job out of the ques
tion for some.
By including these peo
ple who may otherwise be unable
to offer their experience and insight
into the governmental process, the
entire city will benefit from having
the infusion of new perspectives.
The possible methods of payment
would be a small stipend, salary or
hourly wage. However, anyone
who’s ever watched Strom Thur
mond on C-SPAN knows that paying
a politician per hour is just begging
for an incoherent rambling filibuster
on the need for a stop sign at
some isolated crosswalk in
. the middle of nowhere. Since
hourly money is obviously out of
the question, it only seems right
that the members get a small stipend
while possibly giving the mayoral
position a modest salary for the dedi
cation and patience the job requires.
We’re not suggesting that ludi
crous amounts of money be dropped
on the council people like a bursting
pinata dropping all of its confec
tionery goodness on a bunch of sug
ar-fiending candy freaks. But throw
ing a small bone to a starving alley
dweller is just the humane thing to
do. And just maybe they can have a
morsel of cake.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald ed
itorial board. Responses may be sent to
ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Thumbs
To keeping an eye
on the future
The Department of
Education allocated
more than $200,000
to help low-income
families pay for child
care.
To a Second
Chance
The St. Vincent de
Paul Society runs a
renters rehabilitation
program that aids
people in obtaining
and maintaining
housing after rocky
renting histories.
About 100 partici
pants pass through
the Second Chance
program every year.
To pouring sait on
an ugly wound
Germany’s offer of
$3.3 billion to Holo
caust survivors was
an insultingly low
number for the
damage the country
caused in the
world's darkest
hour.
To Coffee People’s
packing up and
moving out
The Coffee People
on 13th Avenue is
closing after four
years of selling their
java to caffeine
seeking customers.
•The last day of cof
fee goodness is Oct.
20.