Public office can be a thankless job, especially around budget time. So running for public office is a big commitment for someone.
You need to have a strong dedication to your community, a love of public speaking, belief in what you’re doing, and both the courage to stand up for yourself and thick skin for the ensuing defence.
And you have to know going in that the job is low paying and hard. You’ll never make a decent living as a career politician at the municipal level.
While we agree that public office should be open to anyone, not just someone with a fat salary, we do not agree with the pay raise that city council is poised to approve.
It has been past practice that any city council in Port Alberni considering a pay raise would ensure that any raise would not come into effect until after the following election.
While we’re sure employees in other lines of work would love to give themselves raises—and that’s never going to happen unless those people are self-employed entrepreneurs—the optics don’t look good for a city council telling residents their property taxes are going to go up again.
How do they expect to pay for a wage increase on one hand while they’re calling for service cuts on the other?
We agree with Coun. Cindy Solda’s suggestion that an outside committee examine whether an increase to remuneration is necessary for our mayor and council.
— Alberni Valley News