Monterey County’s city council members volunteer. We should pay them.

Say you want to reach some of our local electeds by phone – you might catch them at odd times. Monterey City Councilmember Tyller Williamson calls at 7:30am, while bike commuting to his full-time job at the Naval Postgraduate School. Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig calls at 9:30pm, on the heels of a 16-hour day capped by a council meeting – not atypical for someone working a full-time job (as CEO of the Monterey County Business Council), keeping her own business (K. Craig Media) alive and serving as mayor of a city of 165,000 people.

Besides being busy, another thing Williamson and Craig have in common is that they have both floated the idea of changing the compensation structure for their respective city councils. Like all political positions in Monterey County short of county supervisor, they are volunteers, earning a modest stipend for their efforts (and able to opt into city-provided health insurance). Williamson earns $400 a month. Every two weeks, Craig gets a check for $552.84, which includes a vehicle stipend.

In short, it’s not enough to live on in Monterey County, and it’s not enough to entice meaningful competition in many races. The filing period to run for most local offices in the Nov. 8 election closes on Friday, Aug. 12. As of the Weekly’s deadline, there are just two candidates for mayor of Salinas, Craig and businessman Amit Pandya. In Monterey, there are also two candidates for mayor, Williamson and his current council colleague, Dan Albert Jr. For each of two open Monterey City Council seats, there’s just one candidate – no contest at all.

“A big barrier to running is people not feeling like they will be compensated, particularly underrepresented communities – renters, hospitality workers, people of color,” says Williamson, the lone person of color on Monterey City Council. Three of his four colleagues are retired; all are homeowners.

“It’s just about fairly compensating people. It’s not about paying politicians extravagant salaries,” he adds.

We in the public rightly expect a lot from our elected officials. We should fairly pay them for their time – and we should also expect from them to deliver more in exchange. Imagine a scenario in which a salary structure is coupled with the introduction of term limits, so it doesn’t become a forever job, and also attached to requirements like holding regular office hours.

Craig envisions a living wage, maybe $40,000 for a part-time job. “Anybody who runs should be able to pay for child care, so they can do their civic duty,” she says. “Or if you run a business, you can hire someone part-time to run it while you are serving.”

It all sounds pretty reasonable, but it’s also not politically popular for councilmembers to suggest paying themselves. In Pacific Grove, where councilmembers receive $420 a month, Councilmember Jenny McAdams raised the idea in 2021 of boosting compensation. “I think it would open the doors [to people running],” she says.

The council formed a subcommittee to explore the concept, but then the city declared a fiscal emergency and the idea was tabled – it would have been terrible political optics.

I think there’s a simple way to get out of the political messiness. Phase in salaried council seats, so that no current members benefit from it – only their successors would be paid.

In June, Craig ran and lost for county supervisor, which is a salaried, full-time position – but ironically, one in which the district population is about 90,000, 45-percent smaller than her Salinas constituency.

Craig remembers meeting a Minneapolis councilmember at a conference, and comparing notes. Although Minneapolis is about two-and-a-half times larger than Salinas, the council districts are not dissimilar: There are six districts in Salinas, 13 in Minneapolis. Craig, at the time a councilmember representing North Salinas, represented roughly 30,000 constituents – so did her Minneapolis counterpart, who was paid a full-time salary.

There are examples closer to home, as well. In 2016, voters in the city of Santa Clara voted overwhelmingly to amend their city charter to bump councilmember compensation from a symbolic $882.64 per month to $2,000 per month (and mayor to $2,500), and to create a commission to adjust those salaries.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com