Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill once famously said that all politics is local politics. He was nicknamed “Tip” after a Canadian baseball player, which is not at all germane to what I want to talk with you about today, but which I found interesting (Ed: be careful, you are losing them…).

So, anyway, Speaker O’Neill was wrong.

Kind of…

While most issues have a local component, such as going to war means local citizens in the military are involved, there are issues that are primarily national or international in scope. The massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti, for example, demanded an international response. While it is true that things like relief supplies were purchased from local providers, the scope and scale of the rescue operation was mostly national and international.

But today, I want to talk about an issue that truly is local politics (Ed: then why did you… I mean…sigh…), city council salaries!

A common spectator sport in the U.S. — and Colorado is no different — is to criticize politicians. My old boss, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, used to note that the U.S. Congress at the time only had an 11% approval rating, and he said he wondered what was wrong with that 11%, given the problems in national governance.  With the passage of the COVID relief bill, that percentage has shot up to 35% now, but let’s get even more local.

While working for Bennet, I once spent 25 minutes on the phone with an angry gentleman, who wanted the senator to come look at the big pothole in front of his house. I tried to explain that there were different levels of government, and that I could put him in touch with his member of the city council, but he remained adamant that he wanted Bennet to show up with a shovel.

Lots of people tend to see government as a single thing, when, in actuality (putting on my old poli sci professor hat), government is lots of things. There are divisions by function (legislative, executive, and judicial) and there are divisions by layer (federal, state, local). And ironically, people tend to obsess about the national level of governance, when the one that most dramatically impacts them in their daily lives is the smallest — local government.

It’s true: city and county elected leaders have the most impact, day to day, on how you live your lives. The aforementioned potholes are but one example of how most politics is, in fact, local politics (dang, I think I owe Tip O’Neill an apology). And it is with this realization that I recently opened my City of Colorado Springs City Council election ballot. There are four gentlemen running in my district, and I am in the process of reading about them to learn their views before voting.

And in pursuing the ballot, I see that city-wide, multiple people are running for each of the several seats up for grabs in the April election. So why do people want to run for such an office? In my own case, I ran for the U.S. Congress back in 2008 in hopes of working hard on veterans’ issues and more. But I admit that I also thought I could muddle through on the salary paid to members, which is $174,000 per annum (and they are still underpaid, but that idea must await a future column). 

But if you check what Colorado Springs pays members of the City Council, you find it is a mere pittance at $6,250, or about $120 per week. In theory, these are part-time jobs, but in my experience, our council members work way more than 40 hours per week at this “part-time” gig. Clearly these folks running for office are not in it for the money. 

So, I thought I would look around to see what other similarly sized cities pay. Denver, admittedly far larger than Colorado Springs, pays $92,000, so you can certainly work a city council job full time and still be able to afford groceries. Miami, Florida pays about $46,000, which might be livable. Atlanta pays about $60,000, and Arlington, Texas pays $2,400. So, some cities appear to value the work of council members far more than others. But another truism calls out from this conundrum of council pay: you get what you pay for.

In Colorado Springs, the annual “salary” means that no one can afford to run for city council unless they have an entire other income to live on. This often means only retired or independently wealthy people can afford to be involved in governmental service. Military retirees (like me) seem to make up a disproportionate amount of council candidates, which is a mixed blessing. 

Now, you know that Colorado Springs is a heavily Republican area, and so you may be shocked by what I am about to say: we need to dramatically increase the pay of City Council members, even though I know that means paying GOPers almost entirely. But they are serving, and they are working hard. We should pay enough that people of good hearts and minds can consider government service regardless of their own financial independence. We are not well served when only the well-off can serve.

And so, my friends, I ask that you join me in saying what you likely think is heresy: we need to pay elected officials lots more. It is in our own self interest to have a government staffed by the best and brightest. 

Why? Well, because all politics is local, and you get what you pay for.