EDITORIAL: Optics poor around raise
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Updated: June 24, 2009 10:39 AM
Being a public servant is an intensely difficult job, and it’s certainly not one for which many would sign up.
The hours are very long, and there’s no end to the reading required to keep elected officials in the loop and educated on upcoming or current issues.
Most would argue the pay offered is inadequate given the amount of work, and we agree. However, no one forced them to sign up for the job in the first place. Financial reward is, we hope, often not the motivating factor for choosing a term of service helping your community.
Mission Public Schools trustees voted themselves a hefty raise, averaging 31.6 per cent last Tuesday night, and the optics of this decision are extremely poor. Granted, there has been no raise in pay since 2001, but unfortunately, that doesn’t make voting in a raise during the worst economic conditions in decades while teachers lose their jobs and programs are cut a good idea.
A policy may dictate wages be reviewed each year, but that doesn’t make it a simple decision to go ahead simply because policy says so. This is politics, and regardless of whether the board wants to admit it or not, public perception must be taken into consideration in decisions such as these.
If there hasn’t been a raise in eight years, nothing will be hurt by putting it off one more year. By that time the economy likely will have gained some ground, and the extra money can be more easily justified, especially if the board had publicly expressed at the last meeting that it would defer a decision for 12 months.
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