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 authorities and placed it with an independent Salary Setting Commission This change 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 danger 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 Representatives 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 bureaucrats is not just ineffective it s dangerous A survey in the American Review of Inhabitants Administration ascertained that pay-for-performance initiatives often fail in authorities settings because masses 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 meeting 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 leaders to think about their salaries not their communities when making procedures 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 pitfall losing their pay The upshot Legislative deadlines are met on paper with placeholder budgets that get revised weeks later General Strategy Institute of California noted this pattern raising concerns that lawmakers are focused on meeting deadlines not making good budgets A assessment in Governance underscores the danger It identified that when elected-official compensation becomes politicized it reduces constituents trust and discourages civic participation The inquiry 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 society 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 exigency response A rigid pay-for-performance model would have falsely labeled those years as failures punishing leaders for prioritizing community 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 agents continue war of words over controversial homeless arrest proposal City VTA functionaries break ground on -unit tiny home area in North San Jose Editorial Two candidates vie for downtown San Jose council seat One stands out San Jose executives push city to find alternative site for Berryessa Flea Sector 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 ruling body that s worthy of the populace s trust Andrew Hall is professor of political commercial sector 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