{"id":528,"date":"2013-03-03T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/03\/03\/why-not-pay-these-folks-something"},"modified":"2013-03-03T12:54:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-03T12:54:00","slug":"why-not-pay-these-folks-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=528","title":{"rendered":"Why not pay these folks \u2026 something?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I was in San Antonio recently and learned something about Texas\u2019s second-largest city.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s governing council works virtually for free, just like the Amarillo City Commission. San Antonio, with a population of about 1.4 million inhabitants, pays its city council members something $20 per meeting, plus reimburses them for whatever expenses they incur on behalf of the city. <\/p>\n<p>Then I learned of some discussion in the Alamo City to provide at least a more livable stipend for those who serve the public. The issue on the table wouldn\u2019t amount to an exorbitant salary that would enable these folks to quit their day jobs, but it at least would reward them for the grief they have to endure from angry constituents.<\/p>\n<p>The San Antonio Express-News editorial board favors boosting the pay for council members. It noted in an editorial that, according to the Pew Charitable Trust, \u201cHouston pays council members $55,700 yearly; Dallas, $37,500; and Austin, $63,000. Mayors typically earn more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such a discussion hasn\u2019t ever really been raised seriously in Amarillo, where we seem proud of the fact that we pay our commissioners 10 bucks per meeting and pay them back for expenses. <\/p>\n<p>But the announcement the other day that only one candidate \u2013 other than the five incumbents \u2013 has filed for the May election makes me wonder: Isn\u2019t it time at least to begin discussing the idea of paying these folks a little more for their time and service?<\/p>\n<p>I keep thinking a little bit of cash might provide some incentive for those who think they can do a better job of setting policy for our city.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was in San Antonio recently and learned something about Texas\u2019s second-largest city. The city\u2019s governing council works virtually for free, just like the Amarillo City Commission. San Antonio, with a population of about 1.4 million inhabitants, pays its city council members something $20 per meeting, plus reimburses them for whatever expenses they incur on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=528\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why not pay these folks \u2026 something?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}