On December 23, 2007, the Ann Arbor News printed an editorial about Ann Arbor City Council salaries. This is perhaps a lesson for me about quotable sound bites. I should stay away from them, as Big Media in general likes quotable sound bites regardless of the facts. At our last City Council meeting I said that the new raise for City Council members amounted to a Latte a week (actually it is closer to two Lattes). This was interpreted by the Ann Arbor News as troubling that “the working poor are unable to count a few hundred dollars in terms of Lattes.” My attempted point was this: While many selfless citizens have performed public service, there are few people who are able to consider this time demanding position for $15,000 a year. I do think we’d increase diversity of all sorts including age and economic background by increasing the salary and/ or redefining the roles and responsibilities of Council. Perhaps we could focus on the larger picture and do less micro management to reduce the time commitment. It would not be as simple to calculate the cost of the new ~$50 Million police court facility being planned by Council in terms of Lattes. I just find it hard to swallow the genuineness of a proposal to “save the city money” by giving up a $300 annual raise, while simultaneously pushing our community to spend $50 million on a facility where more than one current Council member could end up with a fancy new multi-million dollar courtroom and chambers, if a Council member were to run for judge. I am purposefully not naming Council people here because I have no way of knowing people’s real motivations. But, I can say that on a purely statistical basis, the lower we keep the salary for City Council members, the greater is the likelihood that future Council members will have other motivations for joining Council than public service.

The Ann Arbor News printed this in their editorial about the Ann Arbor City Council salary discussion:

One final note: One of the arguments floated during Monday’s discussion was this: Paying a salary that would support a council member without holding another job would increase the council’s diversity. It wasn’t exactly clear what “diversity” in this case was code for. Minorities? Republicans? In any case, it probably doesn’t mean someone like Ron Suarez, D-1st Ward, who characterized the raise as amounting to “a latte a week.”

For constituents who wouldn’t count a few hundred dollars in terms of lattes - including, presumably, the working poor that the council so frequently laments as lacking affordable housing here - that kind of cavalier attitude toward council pay is troubling.

Since I have few expenses and live very frugally, my only salary is the $15,000 paid to me for my work on City Council. I am not personally complaining about the salary. I freely chose this decision. And, I don’t drink Lattes, I make coffee at home, where I work on my new start-up business, which hired two new employees in 2007, but does not yet pay me a salary. But this is not about me, it is about what kinds of people we hope to attract in the future to City Council. As an entrepreneur, I ride a roller coaster of ups and downs financially, and I do it by choice. Ann Arbor News editor, Mary Morgan used to show up for free food and drinks at parties I threw at my then very profitable business, which I ran in the 1990’s. So, perhaps she thinks I am rich. My new business venture will hopefully become successful and reap financial rewards for me, but for now I make less than many of the “working poor” referenced by the Ann Arbor News. The difference for me, is that I do it by choice. By working out of my house, I am able to cook very nice meals for myself and my staff without paying for the expense of restaurants. I also walk or bicycle to most things and my 1998 automobile sits parked most of the time, so I have not suffered from the gas price increases faced by so many commuters. Being connected in the music scene also means that I can be entertained without spending much or any money. I have no debt or dependents; my son works on Wall Street and my daughter got a full scholarship, plus several awards and prizes to get her MBA. They did not expect lavish Christmas presents from me and were grateful for the time I spent preparing very special meals for our holiday celebrations. I am generally opposed to conspicuous consumerism and think that as Americans we all need to assess our lifestyles to insure that our planet does not suffer in order to support the lives we lead. I am personally very happy living on $15,000 a year, but most people would not have the choices I have been fortunate enough to have in order to make this possible for me.