The reason for the change, according to a staff report, is that council members have more work to do now that they represent districts, instead of the entire city. (This is the first council under the new system, in which seven council members represent geographic districts, and two are elected at large). “The additional
staff support provided by the new positions in this ordinance will be used to address the increased workload resulting from this switch to district elections,” the staff report says.
The legislation doesn’t identify how much money it will cost to hire nine new aides; that will be addressed in the budget process this fall. A quick back-of-the-napkin tally, based on current legislative assistant compensation and benefits (say, $70,000 each plus $35,000 each for benefits), puts the cost of these new positions at roughly a million dollars.
The council will discuss this proposal in its meeting on Monday, where I think they should consider two important questions. First, since district representatives serve a fraction of the population each council member served when all nine seats were elected at large, what justification is there for bumping up staff sizes by a third? Why does representing one-seventh of the population require a larger staff than representing the entire city?
And second, if the point of adding money in the budget for nine new legislative staffers is to deal with the increased workload under the district system, why do the two at-large positions, currently filled by Lorena González and Tim Burgess, also require additional staffers? Why would the people who don’t even represent districts need more staff to deal with districts?
The council will take up the proposal at its full council meeting on Monday at 2pm.